ANXIOUS FOR BLACK FOX. 185 
—that the black and red fox are entitled to be regarded as 
representatives of different species. Nor has the red fox 
belied his ancestry or deteriorated by his emigration. The 
keen and persevering fox-hunters of Virginia, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Carolina, and Georgia, give him the credit of 
being the most lasting and difficult animal to run down 
that the forests produce. From the natural differences be- 
tween England and America, fox-hunting is not only a very 
dissimilarly conducted sport, but in the latter associated 
with more labor and hardship. The woods are so immense 
that it generally results in cover-hunting from start to fin- 
ish; consequently slower hounds require to be used, and 
every advantage of Pug taken. At dawn the field assem- 
ble, so as to catch their quarry with a full stomach, and it 
is no uncommon thing for the sun to have reached the west- 
ern horizon, and the hunters to be thirty miles from home 
ere the death wo—whoop be sounded. 
But to the black fox. I had often longed to capture one 
of these beauties during my boyish residence on the Amer- 
ican continent. The price that the pelt would bring was a 
supply of pocket-money that I could see no end to; but 
once, and only once, during that visit, had I the fortune to 
almost realize my wish. I had been hunting all day by the 
margin of a distant lake. Tired and unsuccessful, about the 
hour of sunset I approached a clearing of a few acres in the 
forest, where Indian corn had been grown and just gather- 
ed into shocks. My companion was a little half-bred ter- 
rier, who had endeared himself to me from his sagacity and 
obedience. ‘As I neared the brush fence which surrounded 
the opening, with the habitual caution that residents in wild 
lands learn, I secreted myself behind a stump, and took a 
careful survey; for deer are fond of corn, so are bears, as 
well as all the small varieties of game. I had not remained 
thus hidden for many minutes when what I had taken for 
