Concord, Mass.
1914.
March 17
to
May 31
(No 14)

  Foxes have been scarce or wanting in our neighborhood for
several years past. I doubt if any live there permanently now as
I have found no occupied "earth" of late while trails have often been 
wholly wanting after snow falls. Nevertheless the animals continue to
visit us at infrequent intervals. I noted two this spring. The first
was met with in Birch Field in mid-afternoon of April 19 [April 19, 1914], a clear, warm day.
I was walking quietly along a cart path near the spring when slight
rustling sounds in dense brush to the right attracted my attention & brought
me to a stand-still. A moment later I saw a very large Fox, within 20 yards,
stealing off at a slow, gliding trot with head and brush held low. He
looked as black as a black Cat but this I attributed at first to the dense
shade of cast by some young pines until, at length, he showed his
fine bushy tail rather distinctly for an instant in a comparatively open
space where I saw that it, at least, was black, or nearly so, with
a broadly white tip. As to the coloring of his head & body I could
not
not make sense, because of the dim light & intervening screen of branches.