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Red Fox — Part 4
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When the fox was within a few yards of me he stopped short in his tracks and stared for a few seconds, but without taking fright; on the contrary, he came still nearer, until, when only a few steps away, he caught my scent, and turning went bounding off among the trees. Almost always when you meet a fox in the woods he pretends not to see you, but changes his course casually, as if, perhaps, he had just heard a mouse over there among the stumps. He does not increase his speed in the slightest degree until he is behind some tree or rock; then away he goes at a tremendous rate, always keeping the tree between you and himself until well out of gunshot.
The thin, querulous, husky barking of the fox is not by any means an attractive sound, particularly when heard in the distance on still winter nights; but at times they utter a long, wild screech that would to credit to a panther. This cry is heard oftenest in the spring, when there are young foxes to be protected, and in its tones there is a menace to all intruders.
A fox's ears are wonderfully keen, and he depends upon them much more than upon his eyesight, both in hunting and in avoiding his enemies.
This morning, January 31, 1902, a little before noon I was crossing an open clayey pasture when I heard a crow in the distance give the call which means a fox in sight. Presently I saw Reynard himself trotting along at the edge of a pine grove; when he passed behind a thick clump I ran forward a little way and stopped, watching an opening among the trees where I felt pretty certain he would show himself again. Sure enough, in a very few minutes he appeared and trotted out across the meadows.
He was at least one hundred and fifty yards away and going from me, but the air was still and I squeeked like a meadow-mouse, hoping that perhaps his big ears might catch the sound even at that distance, though the sharpest human ears could scarcely have heard so faint a noise at a tenth part of the distance.
Yet the fox heard it and stopped instantly, and turning, came leaping lightly over the hassocks in my direction. Every few rods he stopped, cocking his ears above the sere meadow-grass to listen; then I would squeek, a little lower each time, and instantly catching the direction of the sound, he would come trotting towards me, using greater caution than at first, and keeping under cover of the hassocks as if to avoid frightening his game. When he got within fifty yards there were no more hassocks or bunches of grass for concealment, only the smooth, sheep-trimmed sod where I crouched in plain sight, with my back to what little sun shone through the flecked and mottled clouds that covered the sky. He looked at me sharply as if mistrusting something, and if I had moved either my head or hand the fraction of an inch he would have been off like an arrow to the woods. But I held myself perfectly motionless, and when the expression of his shrewd, gray face and the set of his ears showed that his suspicions were subsiding, I squeeked once more, very faintly, calling him at last almost up to me. But now he saw that there was certainly something wrong, and that I was neither a rock or stump or even an old scare-crow; so, to make sure, he circled around to get the wind of me, trusting more to his nostrils than to his eyesight.
He was a large male, gray about the face and cheeks, and perfectly black on his legs and the backs of his ears. His tail was a supurb white-tipped brush, well grizzled with black. When I spoke to him he sprang into the air and went bounding away to the woods, then stopped and looked back at me for a few seconds before disappearing among the trees.
Varieties of the Red Fox
While the "cross fox," "silver fox," etc., are merely individual colour varieties, there are several well-marked geographic forms of the red fox.
Red Fox. Vulpes fulvus (Desmarest). Description and range as above.
Nova Scotia Red Fox. V. fulvus rubricosa Bangs. Larger and brighter rusty red.
Newfoundland Red Fox. V. deletrix Bangs. Smaller than the red fox, with larger hind feet and claws. Color paler and less rusty.