1 6 Ways of Wood Folk. 



fox with choice bits scattered over a pile of dry 

 leaves or chaff, sometimes for a week, sometimes for 

 a month, till he comes regularly. Then smoke your 

 trap, or scent it ; handle it only with gloves ; set it in 

 the chaff ; scatter bait as usual ; and you have one 

 chance of gettins: him, while he has still a dozen of 

 getting away. In the wilderness, on the other hand, 

 he may be caught with half the precaution. I know 

 a little fellow, whose home is far back from the settle- 

 ments, who catches five or six foxes every winter by 

 ordinary wire snares set in the rabbit paths, where 

 foxes love to hunt. 



In the wilderness one often finds tracks in the 

 snow, telling how a fox tried to catch a partridge 

 and only succeeded in frightening it into a tree. 

 After watching a while hungrily, — one can almost 

 see him licking his chops under the tree, — he trots 

 off to other hunting grounds. If he were an educated 

 fox he would know better than that. 



When an old New England fox in some of his 

 nightly prowlings discovers a flock of chickens roost- 

 ing in the orchard, he generally gets one or two. 

 His plan is to come by moonlight, or else just at 

 dusk, and, running about under the tree, bark sharply 

 to attract the chickens' attention. If near the house, 

 he does this by jumping, lest the dog or the farmer 

 hear his barking. Once they have begun to flutter 



