Fox -Ways. I I 



Last summer I found a den, beautifully hidden, 

 within a few hundred yards of an old farmhouse. 

 The farmer assured me he had never missed a 

 chicken ; he had no idea that there was a fox 

 within miles of his large flock. Three miles away 

 was another farmer who frequently sat up nights, 

 and set his boys to watching afternoons, to shoot a 

 fox that, early and late, had taken nearly thirty young 

 chickens. Driven to exasperation at last, he bor- 

 rowed a hound from a hunter; and the clog ran the 

 trail straight to the den I had discovered. 



Curiously enough, the cubs, for whose peaceful 

 bringing up the mother so cunningly provides, do 

 not imitate her caution. They begin their hunting 

 by lying in ambush about the nearest farm ; the 

 first stray chicken they see is game. Once they 

 begin to plunder in this way, and feed full on their 

 own hunting, parental authority is gone; the mother 

 deserts the den immediately, leading the cubs far 

 away. But some of them go back, contrary to all 

 advice, and pay the penalty. She knows now that 

 sooner or later some cub will be caught stealing 

 chickens in broad daylight, and be chased by dogs. 

 The foolish youngster takes to earth, instead of trust- 

 ing to his legs ; so the long-concealed den is discov- 

 ered and dug open at last. 



When an old fox, foraging for her young some 



