22 Ways of IVood Folk. 



caught one sure glimpse of a fox as he disappeared 

 into the woods. 



The thing puzzled me for years, though I suspected 

 some foxy trick, till a duck-hunter explained to me 

 what Reynard was doing. He had seen it tried suc- 

 cessfully once on a tiock of wild ducks. — 



When a fox finds a flock of ducks feeding near 

 shore, he trots down and begins to play on the beach 

 in plain sight, watching the birds the while out of the 

 " tail o' his ee," as a Scotchman would say. Ducks 

 are full of curiosity, especially about unusual colors 

 and objects too small to frighten them ; so the play- 

 ing animal speedily excites a lively interest. They 

 stop feeding, gather close together, spread, circle, come 

 together again, stretching their necks as straight as 

 strings to look and listen. 



Then the fox really begins his performance. He 

 jumps high to snap at imaginary flies; he chases his 

 bushy tail ; he rolls over and over in clouds of flying 

 sand ; he gallops up the shore, and back like a whirl- 

 wind ; he plays peekaboo with every bush. The fool- 

 ish birds grow excited ; they swim in smaller circles, 

 quacking ner\ously, drawing" nearer and nearer to get 

 a better look at the strange performance. They are 

 long in coming, but curiosity always gets the better 

 of them ; those in the rear crowd the front rank for- 

 ward. All the while the show goes on, the performer 



