AMERICAN RED FOX. 
265 
vation and improvement of the whole country, is the chief reason why the 
Red Fox has become more numerous than it was before the Revolution, 
and it will probably be found going farther south and west, as the woods 
and forests give place to farms, with hens, chickens, tame turkeys, ducks, 
&c., in the barn-yards. 
The Red Fox is far more active and enduring than the Gray, and gene- 
rally runs in a more direct line, so that it always gives both dogs and hun- 
ters a good long chase, and where the hounds are not accustomed to follow, 
it will frequently beat-out the whole pack, and the horses and huntsmen 
to boot. 
In some parts of the country, however, it is chased and killed with dogs, 
in fine style. The following account of the mode of taking the Red Fox, 
at the sea side in New-Jersey, near Cape May, is from an interesting letter 
written to us in December, 1845, by our friend Edward Harris, Esq., of 
Moorestown, in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia ; it is quite different from 
the ordinary mode of hunting the Red Fox. He begins thus : 
“ On Saturday, a week ago, 1 went to Cape May Court-house, where I 
spent Monday and Tuesday among the quails, {perdrix virginianus), which 
I found exceedingly abundant, but the ground so bad for shooting, that in 
both days two of us shot but thirty-three birds. On Wednesday my friend 
Mr. Holmes took me to Beasi.ey’s Point at the northern extremity of the coun- 
ty ; here I was sorry to learn that young Beasley, who was to have re- 
turned from Philadelphia on the Saturday previous, had not yet made his 
appearance ; his father, however, showed a great desire to forward my views 
in regard to “Monsieur Reynard.” The next day it rained cats anddog.s, and 
Tom Beasley did not arrive in the stage. In the afternoon it cleared oft 
sufficiently to make a “ a drive” in the point, where we started a noble 
specimen in beautiful pelage, but alas! he would not come near the 
standers. 
The next morning, we drove the same ground, being the only place on the 
main land where there was any prospect of driving a Fox to standers with- 
out dogs, (of which there are none in the vicinity). This time we saw 
none. After dinner I took my pointer, and bagged eight brace and a half 
of quails, having this time found them on good ground. The next day, 
Saturday, with three drivers, and three standers, we drove the beach for 
five and a-half miles, without seeing a fox, and so ended this unsuccessful 
expedition. I had great hopes of this beach, (PECK’s),as it had not been hunt- 
ed since the winter before the last, although some of the gunners told me 
they had seen but few “ signs” since that time. 
The mode of driving, which requires no dogs, is for the drivers to be fur- 
nished with two boards, or shingles, which they strike together, or with 
voi,. ri. — 31, 
