Chapter II: To the Teacher

I have chosen the fox in this chapter to illustrate this very
interesting and striking fact that wild animals, birds and
beasts, thrive in the neighborhood of man if given the least
protection; for if the fox holds his own (as surely he does) in
the very gates of one of the largest cities in the United
States, how easy it should be for us to preserve for generations
yet the birds and smaller animals! I might have written a very
earnest chapter on the need for every pupil’s joining the
Audubon Society and the Animal Rescue League; but young pupils,
no less than their elders, hate to be preached to. 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. Far up under the Arctic circle lives the little
white or Arctic fox, so valuable for its fur; and in California
still another species known as the coast fox. The so-called
silver or blue, or black, or cross fox, is only the red fox with
a blackish or bluish coat.

PAGE 9

_Mullein Hill_: the name of the author’s country home in
Hingham, Massachusetts. The house is built on the top of a
wooded ridge looking down upon the tops of the orchard trees and
away over miles of meadow and woodland to the Blue Hills, and at
night to the lights that flash in Boston Harbor. Years before
the house was built the ridge was known as Mullein Hill because
of the number and size of the mulleins (_Verbascum Thapsus_)
that grew upon its sides and top.

PAGE 10

_mowing-field_: a New England term for a field kept permanently
in grass for hay.

PAGE 11

_grubby acres_: referring to the grubs of various beetles found
in the soil and under the leaves of its woodland.

_BB_: the name of shot about the size of sweet pea seed.

PAGE 12

_Pigeon Henny’s coop_: a pet name for one of the hens that
looked very much like a pigeon.

_shells_: loaded cartridges used in a breech-loading gun.

_bead drew dead_: when the little metal ball on the end of the
gun-barrel, used to aim by, showed that the gun was pointing
directly at the fox.

PAGE 16

_the mind in the wild animal world_: how the animals may really
feel when being chased, namely, not frightened to death, as we
commonly think, but perhaps cool and collected, taking the chase
as a matter of course, even enjoying it.

PAGE 17

_The Chase_: The sound of the hunting is likened to a chorus of
singing voices; the changing sounds, as when the pack emerges
from thick woods into open meadow, being likened to the various
measures of the musical score; the whole musical composition or
chorus being called _The Chase_.

PAGE 18

_dead heat_: a race between two or more horses or boats where
two of the racers come out even, neither winning.

PAGE 19

_Flood_: Why spelled with a capital? What flood is meant?

PAGE 20

_hard-pressed fox had narrowly won his way_: In spite of the
author’s attempt to shoot the fox that was stealing his chickens
do you think the author would be glad if there were no foxes in
his woods? How do they add interest to his out of doors? What
other things besides chickens do they eat? Might it not be that
their destruction of woodchucks (for they eat woodchucks) and
mice and muskrats quite balances their killing of poultry? (The
author thinks so.)