556 



REPORT OP STATE GEOLOGIST. 



The stealing is usually done in daylight, although geese and 

 ducks or other poultry roosting on the ground are not safe at night. 

 The fowls are usually seized by the neck, given one quick bite to 

 prevent any squawking, and thrown over the fox's shoulders so that 

 he can carry them without greatly interfering with his speed. 

 Stone and Cram state that thirty pullets have been taken by one 

 fox in a single night. The foxes do some good in return by de- 

 stroying great numbers of field mice, ground squirrels and wood- 

 chucks. But it is doubtful whether they compensate for the loss 

 they cause to poultry raisers. 



The foregoing account shows that hunting with dogs is not an 

 effective method of destroying the animals. Poisoning is often 

 more effective. Foxes have a habit of burying surplus poultry 

 when they get more than they can eat. • Strychnine introduced into 

 the carcasses so buried will sometimes destroy the animals, but care 

 must be taken to touch the carcass only with gloved hands, for an 

 adult fox is wary of the man scent. 



For the same reason it is not easy to trap them, as they have 

 learned to be very cautious about approaching a baited trap. Per- 

 haps the most effective way of trapping is to place the trap at the 

 end of a log which bridges a stream, placing brush so that the ani- 

 mal is compelled to leave the log where the trap is hidden. Foxes 

 are exceeding chary about wetting their feet and invariably seek 

 for some bridge insteady of wading or swimming a stream. 



However, the fox-drive is one of the most effective ways of rid- 

 ding a neighborhood of the pests. In these drives a hollow square, 

 several miles across, is formed by a large number of men and boys. 

 At a given time all of the lines move toward a central point pre- 

 viously agreed upon. The shouting of the men as they advance 

 through the woods and fields drives the foxes from their hiding 

 places, and as the lines draw near together the men are too near 

 each other for them to escape. Even in such circumstances the 

 fox's cunning does not fail him, and the writer knows at least one 

 instance in which a fox, finding the line too strong to break 

 through, hid among some briars and weeds along a fencerow until 

 the men were pnst. By accident, he was discovered, but it was too 

 Inte to turn him into the s(|uare nnd he escaped. 



Tt niusl be jMlniiHed llinl 11i(' jihove method is not a very sporis- 

 mnnlikc wmv of hnnting, hut it is .jnstifiable o:: the ground that 

 llie animjils nrc n jx'st wlierc they nrc numci'ons. As they kill large 

 numbers of (pinil jirid soiii^hii'ds. I doubt tfiat theii' beneficial quali- 

 lies evei" ('(|u;d tlie linrm tlicy do, unless we take into consideration 



