554 



REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Harmony, but this is a general account of the itinerary published 

 previously to the publication of his little book on mammals ; the 

 latter was probably based more carefully on notes and specimens 

 and would naturally be the more accurate of the two. Dr. Ray- 

 mond, in 1869, distinctly stated that it had not been observed until 

 the last ten or fifteen years. Dr. Plummer, in a list of 43 species of 

 mammals found about Richmond in 1844, includes the gray fox, 

 but omits all mention of the red species. Mr. Chansler states that 

 he does not know of any records from Knox County previous to 

 1870, when one was killed close to the junction of White River and 

 Indian Creek. 



At the present time these foxes do not seem to be diminishing 

 in numbers. Most of the evidence I have on this point was col- 

 lected during the summer of 1905. At that time they had become 

 very bold and numerous in the fertile, thickly settled valley of the 

 Ohio River between Rising Sun and Aurora. In a distant part of 

 the State, at Mountayr, Newton County, they were also a pest. One 

 farmer there told me that he had lost not less than 150 chickens 

 from their depredations that year. He poisoned the bodies of some 

 of the chickens they buried, and found carcasses of four foxes 

 which the poison killed. He did not know how many hid away 

 where their dead bodies were not found. In 1908 they were very 

 abundant and bold near Bascom, Ohio County. 



Habits. — So many of the traits of the fox have passed into 

 proverb and story that it does not seem possible to add much to 

 our knowledge of its habits, except through detailed studies of its 

 psychology. Certainly, much that has been written concerning the 

 cunning and almost human sagacity of the red fox, or ''Reynard," 

 should be classed with the fables rather than the natural histories. 

 But fables aside, foxes are undoubtedly among the most cunning, 

 the most adaptable of our mammals and an accurate account of the 

 life history of one of the creatures, together with experiments to 

 determine its teachability, would be a valuable contribution to ani- 

 mal psychology. The fox is at his best when leading the hounds a 

 merry chase. His tricks for throwing them off the scent are in- 

 numerable and their chief aim and result is to make the j)rogr'es-i 

 of the hounds slowc^r rather than to make them lose the trail en- 

 tirely. One of the sim|)h'st of liis devic(^s is to (l()ul)le on his own 

 track, going l)ack to some convenient point on the trail, then leaping 

 fjir to th(! side, often over a l)ank or into a thicket. The ])ari1(Hl 

 hounds }iav(^ to circh' \''.\v jind wide Ix'l'ore Ihey can pick np the lost 

 sccni. '^rhc old Inshioncd mil fence aCfoi'ch'd other o|)portnnities 



