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than one occasion found a woodcock on her nest. It seems 
probable, however, that ordinarily dogs and foxes find only 
such nests as they happen to stumble upon ; otherwise, what 
is to prevent them from destroying the broods of nearly all 
ground-breeding birds ? 
In order to determine the value of the evidence against 
the natural enemies of birds, letters were written to nearly 
all who regarded crows, jays, foxes, squirrels and weasels as 
particularly injurious, inquiring what evidence had led to 
this conclusion. Some of the replies showed that the evi- 
dence was merely hearsay, others appeared to be the result 
of personal observation. 
Mr. J. H. Wood of Pittsfield writes as follows regarding 
foxes : “ I visited a swamp in the vicinity of Ashley Lake, 
for the purpose of running the white rabbits with a hound. 
There had been a heavy snowfall a day or two before, and in 
following a bank on the edge of the swamp we noticed 
several holes in the snow at the foot of the bank under some 
spruce trees. We also noticed a fox track and some feathers 
about a hole. This led me to investigate, and I found that 
this one fox had killed four out of the seven partridge that 
had taken refuge in the snow from the storm of the previous 
day. We tracked this fox from where he had eaten the first 
bird to a ledge, where we succeeded in finding one of the 
birds that had been carried there by the fox. My next ex- 
perience was in 1902, about the 20th of November, when I 
found a place where some men were getting out stone. 
They had uncovered a fox’s burrow where there had been a 
litter of foxes the past summer, and if you could have seen 
the parts and feathers of the partridge you would have been 
surprised.” 
Mr. W. J. Cross of Becket, also in Berkshire County, 
himself a fox hunter, says : “ Every hunter of the fox has 
found, when following a track, the circle of feathers telling 
the story of where the ruffed grouse made his last dive 
under the snow to furnish a meal for Mr. Fox the next 
morning.” 
Mr. W. H. Snow of Becket says : “ I have seen where 
the foxes have killed and eaten the partridges when there is 
