1892
Feb.8
(No 4)
Concord, Massachusetts.
[margin]("Damsdale")[/margin]
Mass.
Concord. - snow. Hence it is possible that the Fox
may have sprung up and seized the Jay on its
roost. I followed all the tracks that led into the
opening a considerable distance back but did not
find a single feather or drop of blood along any of them.
[margin]Tracks &
habits of
Foxes[/margin]
  This afternoon's experience convinced me that our
Fox never gallops or lopes unless when startled or
pursued. Indeed every track that I saw was that
of a walking or trotting Fox. The normal track
is like this: [diagram] suggesting a
pacing gait but occasionally the footprints
alternate thus: [diagram] like those of a
Cat from which they can be distinguished only
by the larger size of the Fox's feet. Neither the
Fox nor the Cat ever dots the snow in a
perfectly straight line. Both usually (and I
think the Cat invariably) put down the hind
foot exactly or approximately so in the footprint
of the fore foot but [delete]some[/delete] the Fox sometimes
departs from this such as I noted a few days since.
  In Pratts meadow fully thirty yards from any
cover whatever I found a hole in the snow where
a Partridge had apparently roosted under the
slight crust. There was a small neat hole
where she had entered it, probably flying down
to it with great force, and another larger hole
where she had come out bursting up through
the crust & scattering broken pieces of it about.
There was only one dropping in the burrow. A
Fox track led by the spot within 25 feet!
[margin]Partridge
roosting in
the snow.[/margin]