356 Canadian Record of Science 



I got a companion to visit the place where the part- 

 ridge had but recently been devoured, with nothing left 

 but the scattered feathers, and everything proved con- 

 clusively that probably the hunger cries of the fox had 

 touched the tender heart of one of its comrades, who had 

 brought the partridge to the starving and captured fox. 



I collected a bunch of some of the larger partridge 

 feathers, some of which I still have, as a souvenir of a 

 touching and pathetic event. 



In those days, the foxes were a regular pest to the 

 farmers in that vicinity, from the frequent depredations 

 they made on their barn-yard fowls, and we always 

 tried to destroy the foxes at every opportunity offered, 

 by trapping or shooting them. 



On one occasion, when my hound was running a fox 

 trail, re seemed to have run ris quarry to earth, out on 

 an opening, where there were very few trees, on a hill on 

 the Robertson farm, commonly known in that vicinity as 

 Burnside. The dog manoeuvring around a fallen tree for 

 some time, keeping up a constant baying, I approached 

 the place, and when I got within one hundred yards of 

 the fallen tree, I took in the situation. I found a large 

 maple tree, broken off almost squarely, in a decayed spot 

 in the trunk, about eight feet from the ground. From 

 the half decayed wood the colour was a yellowish brown, 

 and on the top of this stump reynard was lying curled up 

 like a sleeping cat, but very much awake, and apparently 

 enjoying the way he had fooled the hound. 



The fallen maple tree was heavily branched on all 

 sides, and in falling the trunk was supported by the 

 branches, four or five feet up from the ground, which 

 only made a jump of about three feet for the fox to get 

 from the trunk of the tree to the top of the stump, where 

 he was so well hidden by the sameness in colour of the 

 new break in the half rotten wood and his own yellow 

 coat. 



I only had a shot gun with me on this occasion, and I 

 tried to get within fifty or sixty yards, to take a shot at 



