200 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



plan of campaign, working to and fro on a scent they 

 have found, galloping, sneaking, and finally stalking 

 their game ? " 



" Oh, yes ! " cried Nat, " I've often seen them, and 

 then when they come back if it's a Woodcliuck or a 

 Aluskrat or a Sknnk they liave cauglit, ^Nlr. Wolf brings 

 it lip to the back door and they both bark and bark 

 until some one comes and tells them how clever they 

 are. If their noses are much bitten, as they mostly are 

 wlien they've caught a ^Voodchuck, tliey wait for Olive 

 to put vaseline on them. Just plain vaseline; tliey 

 don't like the kind with the carbolic smell, that you 

 put on our hands when they are scratched ; it makes 

 them sneeze and cough and rub their noses in the grass. 

 I wonder why ? "' 



" Because tlie members of the dog family have such 

 a keen sense of smell that every odor seems many times 

 more powerful to them than to us. This is the reason 

 that the Fox can smell the scent of human fingers on 

 the trap set for liim unless it is dipped in water, or 

 smeared with the blood of a fowl, or some other means 

 is taken to divert him, and even then he may have sus- 

 picions." 



" I should think baby Foxes would be very pretty," 

 said Itap. " What time of tlie year are they born? I 

 mean to loolv fur some next season." 



•'They are born hereabout in March or April. In 

 May, when I ^^■as a. boy, I used often to see half a dozen 

 of these bright, sharp-nosed little pups playing about 

 the entrance to their, earth burrow, or creeping along 

 the rocky ledge or at the base of tlie hollow tree that 

 was home to them. But mamma Avas alwavs sure to be 



