THE FARMER'S SLY NEIGHBOR. 221 



pearance except it be his pointed ears ; but even these 

 have a certain unmistakable foxy air about them, and 

 in a flash, when Reynard is gone, one's first impres- 

 sion that the strange creature was a dog is promptly 

 dismissed. No dog ever had a tail like that, nor was 

 there ever one so lithe and agile in his movements. 

 Keynard appears and reappears in and out among the 

 sweet fern with scarcely the rustle of a leaf or the 

 waving of a fern frond ; that is his way. We could 

 trace any clumsy dog's course by the agitation he cre- 

 ated among the leaves ; but Keynard is accustomed 

 to steal noiselessly after his prey ; the motion of a 

 fern might cost him his dinner. 



In the morning and in the evening, in May and 

 in October, in summer and even in midwinter, we 

 can hear his short, sharp, nervous, rasping bark ; so 

 strange is it that I scarcely know what to liken it to. 

 Perhaps it resembles the stridulous, rasping sneeze 

 of an old backwoodsman, or the harsh tones of a 

 parrot, uttered fortissimo. For the sake of a clearer 

 idea of the hind of a bark the fox makes, I may as 

 well show how it can be rendered by musical notes : 

 e,to~=fe_ "^^^ setter dog has quite a dif- 



l /(^''t) I jj j J^ - ■ ferent tone and, like all dogs, 



■^ he gives a series of short barks, 



each one of which may be fairly represented by a 



single note with an introductory grace note. The 



