. Fowls of the air . of dan-<£fhe O/Beec/i ger. I found the spot, trailing the fox, a few^TvTr/tfge hours later. How cautious he was! The slyjfc^ trail was eloquent with hunger and antici- pation. A few feet away from the promisinghole he had stopped, looking keenly over thesnow to find some suspicious roundness onthe smooth surface. Ah! there it was,just by the edge of a juniper thicket. Hecrouched down, stole forward, pushing a deeptrail with his body, settled himself firmly andsprang. And there, just beside the hole hispaws had made in the snow, was anotherhole where the grouse had burst
. Fowls of the air . of dan-<£fhe O/Beec/i ger. I found the spot, trailing the fox, a few^TvTr/tfge hours later. How cautious he was! The slyjfc^ trail was eloquent with hunger and antici- pation. A few feet away from the promisinghole he had stopped, looking keenly over thesnow to find some suspicious roundness onthe smooth surface. Ah! there it was,just by the edge of a juniper thicket. Hecrouched down, stole forward, pushing a deeptrail with his body, settled himself firmly andsprang. And there, just beside the hole hispaws had made in the snow, was anotherhole where the grouse had burst out, scat-tering snow all over his enemy, who hadmiscalculated by a foot, and thundered awayto the safety and shelter of the pines. There was another enemy, who ought tohave known better, following the old beechpartridge all one early spring when snowwas deep and food scarce. One day, incrossing the partridges southern range, Imet a small boy, — a keen little fellow, withthe instincts of a fox for hunting. He had. »^ i^fff -^>i: ■fi^^^ ^>\-i)r\(t Co^t.\-jrvl\^ Thundered away to the safety and shelter of the pines always something interesting afoot, °— minks,or muskrats, or a skunk, or a big owl, — soI hailed him with joy. Hello, Johnnie ! what you after to-day— g^^ OfBeechbears? 7>afrid^e But he only shook his head — a bit sheep-ishly, I thought — and talked of all thingsexcept the one that he was thinking about;and presently he vanished down the old of his jacket pockets bulged more thanthe other, and I knew there was a trap in it. Late that afternoon I crossed his trail and,having nothing more interesting to do, fol-lowed it. It led straight to the bullbrierthicket, where the old beech partridge had searched for it many times in vainbefore the fox led me to it; but Johnnie, insome of his prowlings, had found tracks andsigns under a cedar branch, and knew justwhat they meant. His trap was there, in thevery spot where, the night bef
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
