CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 
241 
locality. The old fox placed tlic goose on tlio ground close to the stack, and dashed into the 
thick underwood. The bark-stripper descended the tree, took possession of the prize, and retired 
to mark the result. The old fox had evidently gone for the purpose of fetching the cubs, as she 
soon appeared and conducted them to the very spot where the goose had been deposited. She 
found that it was gone, and evinced the utmost degree of anxiety and alarm, hurrying about in 
every direction. The bird could not be found, and the cubs, disappointed of their expected 
sapply of food, flew at the mother and tore her to pieces ! 
" But, however savage the young foxes may be, the niost affectionate care is evinced by the 
mother for her cubs. Often, on a fine summer evening, she will emerge from her home, near an 
open green spot ; and, after looking cautiously around and attentively listening, her cubs will 
follow her. She leads them to the open space alluded to, and they commence their playful 
gambols in the most joyous manner possible, tumbling each other about, sometimes placing 
FOXES AT PLAT. 
themselves in a row, and commencing the game of leap-frog like a lot of merry schoolboys : 
sometimes, as there is said to be one fool in all large families, they chase this unfortunate member 
about in the roughest manner possible, as if to arouse its dormant energies, while the old fox, 
sitting upon her haunches, marks with a parent's fondness the playfulness of her children. But, 
on the least note of danger being heard, a low whimper from her is instantly obeyed, and they all 
immediately disappear to their den. 
" The fox seems to possess a mingled humor and love of mischief, almost human. ^'\Tien he 
encounters a large toad, he will place both his fore-feet beneath its body, and pitch it twenty or 
thirty feet high, repeating this operation very rapidly until the unfortunate reptile is cither disabled 
or killed. 
"Reynard, although extremely cunning and cautious, is at the same time very provident. 
When the evening twilight is spread over the earth, and tlie woods have assumed a deeper gloom, 
and the notes of the feathered race, from the jay to the raven, are wholly hushed, or but faintly 
Vol. L— 31 
