to leave his
father there, while he went in search of the bear. Tracking it, he
soon came upon it and shot it dead. Back he hastened to camp and, with
his mother, returned with a sled and hauled the wounded man home.

THE FOX AT HOME

The "coloured" foxes, including the red, the cross, the silver, and the
black--the latter three being merely colour phases of the former and
not separate species, as has frequently been proved, but all four
having been found in the same litter--mate in February and March. They
pair and remain faithful partners. The father also helps in feeding
and caring for the young which are born about fifty days after the
mating season. The litter contains from three to ten, and when a few
weeks old the young are as playful and as interesting as domestic
kittens. The den in which they are born may be a hollow tree, a hollow
log, or more often an underground tunnel with several entrances and a
storeroom besides the living chamber. The nest is never lined, but
left quite bare and is kept clean. Their principal food is derived
from mice, birds, fowl, and rabbits; and the parents frequently cache
food for both their young and themselves. No wonder they are good
providers, for what with their keen sense of scent and their great
speed they seldom fail in their hunts. They are fond of open country
and have an individual range of very few miles, perhaps ten at the
most. In winter they run singly until the mating season; seldom are
the tracks of more than two foxes seen together, and their principal
enemies are men, wolves, lynxes, and dogs.

As the district through which we were passing was rich in fox-signs,
Oo-koo-hoo set a number of traps. Such work takes time, and when we
reached a well-wooded grove of second-growth birch, poplars, and--along
a little creek--willows, we began to think of where we should camp for
the night. Besides, the old hunter deemed it an ideal spot in which to
set lynx and rabbit snares. So while the boys cut wood for the fire
and brush for our beds, and then turned to the cooking of supper,
Oo-koo-hoo cut a great mass of birch, poplar, and willow branches and
tops, and threw them into piles, not only to attract the rabbits
thither, but to afford them a prolonged feast for many weeks, and thus
fatten them for his own use; moreover, the gathering of the rabbits
would prove a strong attraction for the lynxes of the region.
Sometimes, at such a spot, hundreds of rabbit