THE FOX 79 



tempt for it in a way you cannot mistake, or else 

 he will not approach within a rod of it. Occasion- 

 ally, however, he finds in a trapper more than his 

 match, and is fairly caught. "When this happens, 

 the trap, which must be of the finest make, is never 

 touched with the bare hand, but, after being thor- 

 oughly smoked and greased, is set in a bed of dry 

 ashes or chaff in a remote field, where the fox has 

 been emboldened to dig for several successive nights 

 for morsels of toasted cheese. 



A light fall of snow aids the trapper's art and 

 conspires to Eeynard's ruin. But how lightly he 

 is caught, when caught at all! barely the end of his 

 toes, or at most a spike through the middle of his 

 foot. I once saw a large painting of a fox strug- 

 gling with a trap which held him by the hind leg, 

 above the gambrel-joint ! A painting alongside of 

 it represented a peasant driving an ox-team from 

 the off-side ! A fox would be as likely to be caught 

 above the gambrel-joint as a farmer would to drive 

 his team from the off-side. I knew one that was 

 caught by the tip of the lower jaw. He came 

 nightly, and took the morsel of cheese from the pan 

 of the trap without springing it. A piece was then 

 secured to the pan by a thread, with the result as 

 above stated. 



I have never been able to see clearly why the 

 mother fox generally selects a burrow or hole in the 

 open field in which to have her young, except it be, 

 as some hunters maintain, for better security. The 

 young foxes are wont to come out on a warm day. 



