FOXES 



hammering on empty apple barrels; and the 

 fox when he started off ran directly toward them 

 for some ways before turning aside among the 

 trees. 



The foxes' den is usually an abandoned wood- 

 chuck burrow in a sandy hillside. It is always 

 enlarged and extended considerably so that the 

 big pile of new earth thrown up before the 

 entrance is sure to make it rather conspicuous. 

 The old male, I am told, never enters it, except 

 perhaps to carry food to the cubs ; his bed- 

 room is in the open air, usually on a flat rock 

 or ledge, though I have started them from their 

 naps at mid-day on flat stumps in a clearing, 

 among the blueberry bushes in a swamp, or be- 

 neath the shelving bank of a stream. 



Last winter some hunters captured a fox in 

 the hollow trunk of a large elm that stands alone 

 in the meadows near here. The only opening 

 was through a large hollow root, while inside 

 was a space three or four feet in diameter reach- 



39 



