268 
AMERICAN RED POX. 
black-cross Foxes together: when this is the case it is difficult to tell 
which are the red and which the cross Foxes until they are somewhat 
grown. In these cases the parents were probably different in colour. 
This animal feeds upon rats, rabbits, and other small quadrupeds, and 
catches birds, both by lying in wait for them, and by trailing them up 
in the manner of a pointer dog, until watching an opportunity he can 
pounce or spring upon them. In our article on the Gray Fox, (vol. 1 ., 
p. 164 ) we have described the manner in which this is done by that 
species, and the Red Fox hunts in the same waj’. 
The Red Fox also eats eggs, and we have watched it catching crickets 
in an open field near an old sfone wall. It is diverting to witness' 
this — the animal leaps about and whirls round so quickly as to be able to 
put his loot on the insect, and then gets hold of it with his mouth ; we 
did not see him snap at them ; his movements reminded us of a kitten 
playing with a mouse. 
^^e once knew a Red Fox that had been chased frequently, and alwavs 
escaped at the same spot, by the hounds losing the track : the secret was 
at last found out, and proved to be a trick somewhat similar to tlie 
stratagem of the Gray Fox related in our first volume, p. 171 ; the 
Red Fox always took the same course, and being ahead of the dogs so 
far that they could not see him, leaped from a fallen log on to a very 
sloping tree, which he ascended until concealed by the branches, and 
as soon as the dogs passed he ran down and leaping on to his old 
track ran back in his former path. So dexterously was this ‘-toui-” 
performed that he wms not suspected by the hunters, who once or 1 wice 
actually whipped their dogs off the trail, thinking they were only fol- 
lowing the “ back track.” 
The Red Fox is in the habit of following the same path, which enable.s 
the fox hunters to shoot this species from “stands,” even in a country 
where the animal has room enough to take any course he m iy choose 
to run. The “hunters” who go out from the city of New-York, are 
a mixed set, probably including Germans, Frenchmen, Englishmen, and 
Irishmen, and each one generally takes his own dog along, {on the 
•speed and prowess of which he is ready to bet largely,) and the hunt 
is organized on the height beyond Weehawken in “ the Jerseys,” where 
a good many Red Foxes are to be found, as well as more Gray ones. 
The men are all on foot, and station themselves along ridges, or in 
gaps in the rocky hilly country, now running to a point, to r.rv and 
get a shot, now yelling to their dogs, and all excitement and hubbub. 
If the Fox doubles much, he is very apt to get shot by some one before 
he passes all the “slanders,” and the hunters then try to start another; 
