tion, according to fox hunters. He is 
suspicious, and only the pangs of hun- 
ger can goad him into reckless actions. 
Then he becomes bold. Once a fox, 
which was being hunted by hounds and 
had twice heard the shot whizzing by, 
seized a sick hare in his flight and car- 
ried it with him a considerable distance. 
Another was surrounded in a field; he 
came out, attacked a wounded hare, 
killed it before the eyes of the hunts- 
men, rapidly buried it in the snow, and 
then fled directly through the line 
formed by the sportsmen. 
Litters of young foxes are born 
about the end of April or the beginning 
of May. Their number varies between 
three and twelve. 
Lenz had a tame female fox which he 
received just as she was beginning to 
eat solid food, but had already become 
so vicious and so much addicted to bit- 
ing that she always growled when eating 
her favorite food and bit right and left 
into straw and wood, even when nobody 
was disturbing her. Kind treatment 
soon made her so tame that she would 
allow him to take a freshly-killed rabbit 
out of her bloody mouth and insert his 
fingers instead. Even when grown up 
she liked to play with him, was demon- 
strative in her joy when he visited her, 
wagged her tail, whined, and jumped 
around. She was just as much pleased 
to see a stranger, and she distinguished 
strangers at a distance of fifty paces, when 
they were turning the corner of the 
house, and with loud cries would invite 
them to come up to her, an honor which 
she never accorded either to him or his 
brother, who usually fed her, probably 
because she knew they would do so 
anyway. 
Reynard has been known to attack 
and kill young calves and lambs, and if 
the seashore is near will revel in oysters 
and shellfish. A group of rabbits are 
feeding in a clover- patch. He'll crawl 
along, nibbling the juicy flowers until 
near enough to make a grab. He'll 
stalk a bird, with his hind legs dragging 
behind him, until near enough to 
spring. How farmers dread his inroads 
in the poultry yard! Fasten the yard 
up tight and he will burrow a winding 
passage into the ground beneath and 
suddenly appear among the drowsy 
chickens and stupid geese, whose shrill 
and alarmed cries arouse the farmer 
from his bed to sally forth, finding all 
safe. Then the fox will sneak back 
and pack away with the plumpest 
pullet or the fattest goose. 
AMONG ANIMALS. 
The deer really weeps, its eyes being 
provided with lachrymal glands. 
Ants have brains larger in proportion 
to the size of their bodies than any 
other living creature. 
There are three varieties of the dog 
that never bark — the Australian dog, 
the Egyptian shepherd dog and the 
"lion-headed" dog of Tibet. 
The insect known as the water boat- 
man has a regular pair of oars, his legs 
being used as such. He swims on his 
back, as in this position there is less re- 
sistance to his progress. 
Seventeen parcels of ants' eggs from 
Russia, weighing 550 pounds, were sold 
in Berlin recently for 20 cents a pound. 
The peacock is now kept entirely, it 
would seem, for ornament — for the or- 
nament of garden terraces (among old- 
fashioned and trim-kept yew hedges he 
is specially in place) — in hislivingstate, 
and for various aesthetic uses to which 
his brilliant plumage and hundred-eyed 
tailfeathers are put when he is dead or 
moulting. But we seldom eat him now, 
though he used to figure with the boar's 
head, the swan and the baron of beef 
on those boards which were beloved by 
our forefathers, more valiant trencher- 
men than ourselves. Yet young pea- 
hen is uncommonly good eating, even 
now, at the end of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, and in the craze that some people 
have for new birds — Argus pheasants, 
Reeve's pheasants, golden pheasants 
and what not — to stock their coverts, 
it is a wonder that some one has not 
tried a sprinkling of peacocks. 
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