26 Ways of Wood Folk. 



a dazed vision of a flying black animal that seemed 

 to perch an instant on the log fence and vanish 

 among the spruces. 



Poor Johnnie ! There were tears in his eyes when 

 he told me about it, three years afterwards. 



These are but the beginning of fox-ways. I have 

 not spoken of his occasional tree climbing ; nor of his 

 grasshopper hunting ; nor of his planning to catch 

 three quails at once when he finds a whole covey 

 gathered into a dinner-plate circle, tails in, heads out, 

 asleep on the ground ; nor of some perfectly astonish- 

 ing things he does when hard pressed by dogs. But 

 these are enough to begin the study and still leave 

 plenty of things to find out for one's self. Reynard is 

 rarely seen, even in places where he abounds ; we 

 know almost nothing of his private life ; and there 

 are undoubtedly many of his most interesting ways 

 yet to be discovered. He has somehow acquired a 

 bad name, especially among farmers ; but, on the 

 whole, there is scarcely a wild thing in the woods 

 that better repays one for the long hours spent in 

 catching a glimpse of him. 



