Foxes

“ CHAPTER XVIII UNDER THE NORTH STAR—WHERE FOX AND ERMINE RUN I Of Foxes, Many and Various—Red, Cross, Silver, Black, Prairie, Kit or Swift, Arctic, Blue, and Gray
Wherever grouse and rabbit abound, there will foxes run and there will the hunter set steel-traps. But however beautiful a fox-skin may be as a specimen, it has value as a fur only when it belongs to one of three varieties—Arctic, black, and silver. Other foxes—red, cross, prairie, swift, and gray—the trapper will take when they cross his path and sell them in the gross at the fur post, as he used to barter buffalo-hides. ”

“ One could never tell all that happened to the little Red Foxes. They moved from burrow to burrow many times; they learned to eat meat which their mother brought them instead of drinking milk from her body, they frolicked together near the doorway of their home, and while they did this their mother watched from the edge of the forest, ready to warn them if she saw men or dogs coming. ”

“ Foxes, when they roam from the woods into the meadow-land, prefer to sleep during the day in those osier-beds which are found in the narrow corners formed by the meanderings of the brooks. Between the willow-wands there shoots up a thick undergrowth of sedges, long coarse grass, and reeds; and in these the fox makes his bed, turning round and round till he has smoothed a place and trampled down the grass; then reclining, well sheltered from the wind. A dog will turn round and round in the same way before he lies down on the hearthrug. ”

“ As it happened, Trumpeton Wood was, and always had been, the great nursery of foxes for that side of the Brake country. Gorse coverts make, no doubt, the charm of hunting, but gorse coverts will not hold foxes unless the woodlands be preserved. The fox is a travelling animal. Knowing well that "home-staying youths have ever homely wits," he goes out and sees the world. ”

“ Foxes [147] of various colours are not scarce in those parts; but the natives living such a wandering life, seldom kill many. It is rather strange that no other species of Fox, except the white, are found at any distance from the woods on the barren ground; for so long as the trade has been established with the Esquimaux to the North of Churchill, I do not recollect that Foxes of any other colour than white were ever received from them.
Varying Hares.
The Varying Hares [148] are numerous to the North of Churchill River, and extend as far as latitude 72°, probably farther. ”

“ By the modern regulation of trapping, foxes and other fur-bearers are destined to survive wherever conditions are favorable. In addition to the economic value of foxes, the location of an occasional fox den here and there on the borders of a woodland tract, the meandering tracks in the snow, and the occasional glimpse of animals cautiously making their rounds add a keen touch of primitive nature well worth preserving in any locality. ”

“ The Hares be some of them white, and a yard long; these two harmelesse creatures are glad to shelter themselves from the harmefull Foxes, in hollow trees, having a hole at the entrance no bigger than they can creepe in at: if they should make them holes in the ground, as our English Rabbets doe, the undermining Renoilds would rob them of their lives, and extirpate their generation. The beasts of offence be Squunckes, Ferrets, Foxes, whose impudence sometimes drives them to the good wives Hen roost, to fill their Paunch: some of these be blacke; their furre is of much esteeme. ”

“ Besides, it was well known, he said, that men hunt Foxes simply for their tails, which they cut off as prizes of the hunt. With such proof of the danger and uselessness of having a tail, said Master Fox, he would advise every Fox to cut it off, if he valued life and safety. ”

“ Little foxes are playful and good natured, and take kindly to other animals, unless excited by their parents' aversion to the creature. They are very keen and learn the ethics of animal existence and the laws of the wild very quickly. Our Chinese cook caught a baby fox in a kind of trap known as the figure 4. ”

“ Naturalists tell us that in this way the American foxes have come to be almost as intelligent as those of the Old World. The red fox, we are told, "now holds his own against man, as much by boldness and audacity as by caution; few of our wild animals look on man with so little awe."
You must have read many stories illustrating this boldness of the fox, often shown in robbing hen-roosts and even catching chickens in the yards or the fields. And quite as remarkable are the accounts of foxes' cunning in avoiding hunters and hounds. ”

“ From their parents they learned the chief axioms of the fox world. How, is not easy to say. But that they learned this in company with their parents was clear.
Here are some that foxes taught me, without saying a word:—
Never sleep on your straight track.
Your nose is before your eyes, then trust it first.
A fool runs down the wind.
Running rills cure many ills.
Never take the open if you can keep the cover.
Never leave a straight trail if a crooked one will do.
If it's strange, it's hostile.
Dust and water burn the scent. ”

“ Fox-hunting, I maintain, is entitled to be considered one of the fine arts, standing somewhere between music and dancing. For ‘Tally-ho!’ like the favourite evening gun of colonising orators, has been ‘carried round the world.’ The plump mole-fed foxes of the neutral ground of Gibraltar have fled from the jolly cry ”

“ But some foxes make better fathers than others; one we have known to rear a litter of cubs on the death of the vixen. Of course a dog fox could do little if- 60 - the cubs were dependent on a milk diet. A curious case of an exemplary fox was that of the unfortunate one which met his end while carrying a shoulder of carrion mutton to two vixens and two litters inhabiting the same earth. ”

“ The fox is so subject to the influence of climate, that the species are almost as numerous as of any domestic animal. The generality of French foxes are red, some few are grey, but all have the tip of their tail white ”

“ LITTLE baby Foxes are darlings. Their faces are round and chubby, set with eyes as bright as beads. Their little bodies are fat and round, and their fur is soft, woolly and abundant. From five to six is the usual number born in a litter. ”

“ The blue fox of commerce is a color phase of this species, usually of sporadic occurrence, like the black phase of the red fox. The white fox makes its burrow either in a dry mound, under a large rock, or in the snow, where its young are brought forth and cared for with the devotion which appears to characterize all foxes. ”

“ Most foxes would have been happy to have such a quiet, comfortable time in an enchanted land and wouldn’t have found anything to worry about. But after a few hundred years he again got restless and [Pg 70] tired and nothing was good enough for him. He spent all his time planning what he would do when he was a fox with nine golden tails. He talked of nothing else, and became the greatest bore in the forest. And he made so much fun of the peacock, saying it wore painted feathers, that the poor bird got ashamed to spread its tail. ”

“ The skin of young foxes, or those taken in summer, are held in little esteem. The flesh of the fox is [164] not so bad as that of the wolf; dogs, and even men, eat it in autumn, especially if he has been fattened with grapes; and in winter good furs are made of his skin. He sleeps so sound that he may be closely approached without being awakened; he sleeps in a round position like a dog, but when he only means to rest, he stretches out his hind legs and lies flat upon his belly. ”

“ Pheasants without tails tell a story of a young fox's spring that failed to bring him a- 247 - supper. Heads of rabbits, and nothing else, in snares, rejected maws lying near by—the disinterment of poaching cats which the keeper has buried—these show where hungry foxes have passed. By day their presence is revealed if a cock pheasant cries a sudden, uneasy, short alarm-note, by the screaming of jays, and by a particular blackbird note, which, if it does not mean stoat or cat, certainly bespeaks a fox. A crow may be seen suddenly swooping angrily as he passes over a field—a fox lurks there. ”

“ The Fox is a cunning and mischievous animal. He is troublesome to the farmer, frequently killing his geese and chickens. People are obliged to go, in great numbers, sometimes, to hunt them out of their holes and hiding places.—Do you remember what our Saviour said of himself? “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. ”

“ Thus I once met a man who had lived sixteen years in northern Ontario, had had his chickens stolen every year by Foxes, and never in his life had seen a Fox. I know many men who live in Wolf country, and hear them at least every week, but have never seen one in twenty years' experience. ”

“ Foxes live in holes of their own making, generally in the loamy soil of a side hill, says an old Fox hunter, and the she-Fox bears four or five cubs at a litter. When a fox-hole is discovered by the Farmers they assemble and proceed to dig out the inmates who have lately, very likely, been making havoc among the hen-roosts. An amusing incident, he relates, which came under his observation a few years ago will bear relating. A farmer discovered the lair of an old dog Fox by means of his hound, who trailed the animal to his hole. ”

“ So I have recounted a series of short narratives, trusting to the suggestions of the chapter, and to the quiet comment of the teacher to do the good work. Every pupil a protector of wild life is the moral.
FOR THE PUPIL
There are two species of foxes in the eastern states—the gray fox, common from New Jersey southward, and the larger red fox, so frequent here in New England and northward, popularly known at Reynard. ”

“ In habits the fox is to a great extent solitary, and its home is usually a burrow, which may be excavated by its own labour, but is more often the usurped or deserted tenement of a badger or a rabbit. Foxes will, however, often take up their residence in woods, or even in water-meadows with large tussocks of grass, remaining concealed during the day and issuing forth on marauding expeditions at night. Rabbits, hares, domesticated poultry, game-birds, and, when these run short, rats, mice and even insects, form the chief diet of the fox. ”

“ The fox is found in every town and district in the country. It is the most detested of all things. It is the epitome of treachery, meanness and sin. The land is full of stories of evil people who turned out to be foxes in the disguise of human form. ”

“ The wool is, however, poor compared to the otter and beaver, and the pelt thin and in no way comparable to them in strength. White hares are frequently sold as white fox, but the fur is weak, brittle and exceedingly poor compared to fox and possesses no thick underwool. Foxes, too, and badger are dyed a brownish black, and white hairs inserted to imitate silver fox, but the white hairs are too coarse and the colour too dense to mislead any one who knows the real article. But if sold upon its own merits, pointed fox is a durable fur. ”

“ The Dakotas called the Ojibways the "Snakes of the Forest" on account of their lying in ambush for their enemies.
[58]
Strawberries.
[59]
Seé-yo—The prairie-hen.
[60]
Mahgâh—The wild-goose. Fox-pups. I could never see the propriety of calling the young of foxes kits or kittens, which mean little cats. The fox belongs to the canis or dog family, and not the felis or cat family. If it is proper to call the young of dogs and wolves pups, it is equally proper to so call the young of foxes. ”

“ And the swallow sat on his nest above, and sang his sweetest bridal song for the wedding of little Thumbelina.
[Pg 294]
THE FOX AND THE LITTLE RED HEN
Once upon a time there was a little red hen. She lived in a little white house and she had a little green garden. Every day she worked in the house and garden.
Near her home lived a family of foxes. One day Mamma Fox said to Papa Fox, “I want a fat hen to eat.” There was nothing in the pantry for the baby foxes, so Papa Fox started out to find something for them all. ”

“ The FOX, when tamed and subject to nice inspection, is one of the most beautifully formed animals in the creation; and when that form is critically surveyed, the possibility of his persevering speed before such immense bodies of fleet pursuers, {287} for so great a length of time, becomes matter of the greatest admiration. Foxes are in colour of a yellowish red, or rather yellow brown, having on the forehead, the shoulders, as far as the root of the tail, and the outside of the hind legs, a tinge of dirty white or ash colour: the edges of the lips, the cheeks, and the throat, are white ”

“ With much greater difficulty they freed him from the seine and got him back into his lair.
A DROLL FOX-TRAP By C. A. Stephens
When I was a boy I lived in one of those rustic neighborhoods on the outskirts of the great "Maine woods." Foxes were plenty, for about all those sunny pioneer clearings birch-partridges breed by thousands, as also field-mice and squirrels, making plenty of game for Reynard.
There were red foxes, "cross-grays," and "silver-grays;" even black foxes were reported. These animals were the pests of the farm-yards, and made havoc with the geese, cats, turkeys, and chickens. ”

“ Un-mouse-like, it hibernates in an underground nest during the winter months. Jumping Mice eat both insects and plants.
55 DOGLIKE MAMMALS: FOXES
Red Fox (Vulpes fulva) Looks like a long-legged dog Reddish fur; feet and ears black Large bushy tail, white on tip
Only the most fortunate observer will see a Fox, which is most secretive and truly sly in its habits. It digs burrows and produces four to nine young during April. The Fox has been known to adapt its habits to changes humans have made in its environment, and it is most beneficial because it eats thousands of mice annually. ”

“ Foxes are likewise distinguished by their slighter build, longer and bushy tail, which always exceeds half the length of the head and body, sharper muzzle, and relatively longer body and shorter limbs. ”