LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



I followed, stopping instantly at the first sign of 

 his looking back, and he failed to take alarm so 

 long as he only saw me motionless. When he 

 had reached the shadow of the pines, he trotted 

 up the bank and sat down beside a tree to scruti- 

 nise me ; I now intentionally moved my hand 

 while he was looking, and instantly he was off, 

 bounding through the underbrush at a tremen- 

 dous rate. 



The next fox that I saw, or at any rate made 

 a note of, was on the 23d of September. It had 

 been showery all the morning, but at noon the 

 sun came out calm and sultry. This fox was 

 pursuing a gray squirrel by the edge of an or- 

 chard ; he jumped over a stone wall within fifty 

 yards of me, and stood looking in my direction 

 for several seconds before taking alarm, and then 

 turned and trotted away, while the squirrel ran 

 along the fence and up the branch of an oak- 

 tree. This was hardly one hundred and fiftv 

 yards from a farmhouse where men were at work 



38 



