ing to the puzzled dogs to “leave that 
varmint be” until his voice echoes from 
peak to peak in the wintery air. They 
don’t like to have their dogs “fooling 
their time away” with a gray fox. It 
is not unusual for dog's to run a red fox 
all day; but no one ever heard of a 
gray fox condescending to amuse a 
loud-voiced dog and a chilled-through 
hunter that long. A ten-minute jaunt 
ahead of a fast dog is a long journey 
for Gray Fox. When he has the trail 
tied up in more knots than a dog can 
unravel in a day, he goes away from 
there and lies down in the sunshine un- 
der a thorn tree. 
Close pressed by a good dog, the gray 
fox will climb a tree as quickly as a 
eat. I don’t mean to imply that it has 
the sharp, curved nails of a cat de- 
signed purposely to climb trees, but it 
is truly surprising what trees this ani- 
mal will get into. It will leap from 
branch to branch until it is often thirty 
feet above ground. Climbing up a 
branchy tree to jump across to another 
tree to find refuge in a coon den high 
above ground is no trick at all for this 
fox. If no tree is handy it seems to 
know that no dog or human can get it 
out of a rock crevice or a rock slide. It 
does not ‘hesitate to take to a hole in 
the ground. 
Gray Fox’s sight, nose and hearing 
are so finely developed, that not more 
than once in a lifetime does an ordi- 
nary hunter get a shot at a gray fox 
without a dog. I know I never did. I 
don’t know anyone that ever did, al- 
‘though we have shot lots of red foxes 
in this way. Now and then during a 
pheasant drive, a gray fox is killed, but 
not more than one a season. Only a 
very few grays are shot each winter by 
the professional fo’ hunters. They are 
fleet of foot, cunn: ¢g to the highest de- 
gree, and their g ay coat makes them 
all but invisible w'.en there is no snow 
on the ground. T!ey often pass within 
ten yards of a watching hunter and are 
not seen. Last year, one sneaked up a 
ravine at the very feet of a watcher, a 
good fox hunter, and he never knew it 
until the dog about ran over him. 
And no small animal is harder to 
trap. They catch reds here, but no 
grays. The coyote is no more cunning 
in this respect. 
I know! I tried it. I spent all one 
summer trying to trap, or shoot, a 
family of gray foxes preying on my 
chickens. I never caught one. I never 
had a shot at one. I used to hide out 
and watch the flock and dare a fox to 
touch a hen. Usually they accepted the 
dare and killed a hen or two down by 
the house while I was out to the chick- 
house watching eagle-eyed from the 
loft. It may have been merely a co- 
incidence that several people who do 
not own a gun and cannot shoot, saw 




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