LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



March (5, i8gg, 8 p. m. A fox has been bark- 

 ing, or squalling rather, at no great distance from 

 the house, though in all probability he is farther 

 away than he sounds, that being usually the case. 

 I doubt if at any time he is less than a quarter of 

 a mile away, though his voice sounds about as loud 

 at that distance as the caterwauling of cats in the 

 door-yard, which sound, in fact, it strikingly 

 resembles at times, as if several foxes were fight- 

 ing and snarling together. At other times it is 

 simply a shrill snarl uttered at intervals of per- 

 haps a minute, with occasional longer intervals ; 

 finally he seemed to go off towards the southeast, 

 still barking periodically. March 7. It certainly 

 seems as though the fox last night was barking at 

 the approaching storm, as they are said to do, for 

 though it was perfectly clear and calm at the 

 time, before morning it was blowing a gale, with 

 snow-squalls that rendered it impossible to see 

 any distance, and it has been increasing ever since 

 and bids fair to be a blizzard to be remembered. 



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