The Crafty Fox 355 



It was a mild day, after a heavy fall of deep soft 

 snow, in the early part of January, so I provided myself 

 with a couple of steel spring fox traps. I knew from 

 previous experience that reynard would not run far, but 

 would run to earth the first chance he got, if pursued by 

 a swift hound, when his brush and fur got loaded up 

 with the soft snow. 



When the hound took up the scent and started to run 

 on the trail, the fox ran about a mile straight on his 

 course, then swinging around in a circle, he doubled 

 back in the direction he came from, and ran to earth in a 

 little sand hill, in a small thickly wooded hemlock patch 

 of trees, after being pursued less than a couple of miles. 



The sound of the baying hound, apparently coming 

 for some time from the same place, I went over in that 

 direction and found the hound scratching out the sand 

 at the mouth of the open hole, in an attempt to get at 

 the fox. 



I tied up the hound, then set the two traps in the 

 fox hole, securing them by small chains to a near-by tree. 

 I then led my hound home and kept him tied up for a few 

 days, in case that he would return to the fox hole and 

 get caught in the traps. 



A couple of days afterwards, I visited the traps, but 

 found nothing disturbed. Two days later, I. visited the 

 traps with the same result. I then was absent for a 

 couple of days in the city, and when I returned, on the 

 following day, I found that the fox in trying to make his 

 escape out of the hole, had got caught in one of the traps, 

 and set off the other. 



To my great surprise, I found that the captured fox 

 had devoured a partridge at the mouth of the hole. On 

 examining the fresh tracks in the surrounding snow, it 

 Was clearly seen that the the partridge had been brought 

 to the captured fox by another fox, who had done a good 

 deal of reconnoitring around the hole before approaching 

 near enough to give its hungry comrade a well-timed 

 meal. 



