n his fishing. Late
one afternoon, while following the shore of a pond, I noticed a
commotion among some tame ducks, and stopped to see what it was about.
They were swimming in circles, quacking and stretching their wings,
evidently in great excitement. A few minutes' watching convinced me
that something on the shore excited them. Their heads were straight up
from the water, looking fixedly at something that I could not see;
every circle brought them nearer the bank. I walked towards them, not
very cautiously, I am sorry to say; for the farmhouse where the ducks
belonged was in plain sight, and I was not expecting anything unusual.
As I glanced over the bank something slipped out of sight into the
tall grass. I followed the waving tops intently, and caught one sure
glimpse of a fox as he disappeared into the woods.

The thing puzzled me for years, though I suspected some foxy trick,
till a duck-hunter explained to me what Reynard was doing. He had seen
it tried successfully once on a flock of wild ducks.--

When a fox finds a flock of ducks feeding near shore, he trots down
and begins to play on the beach in plain sight, watching the birds the
while out of the "tail o' his ee," as a Scotchman would say. Ducks are
full of curiosity, especially about unusual colors and objects too
small to frighten them; so the playing animal speedily excites a
lively interest. They stop feeding, gather close together, spread,
circle, come together again, stretching their necks as straight as
strings to look and listen.

Then the fox really begins his performance. He jumps high to snap at
imaginary flies; he chases his bushy tail; he rolls over and over in
clouds of flying sand; he gallops up the shore, and back like a
whirlwind; he plays peekaboo with every bush. The foolish birds grow
excited; they swim in smaller circles, quacking nervously, drawing
nearer and nearer to get a better look at the strange performance.
They are long in coming, but curiosity always gets the better of them;
those in the rear crowd the front rank forward. All the while the show
goes on, the performer paying not the slightest attention apparently
to his excited audience; only he draws slowly back from the water's
edge, as if to give them room as they crowd nearer.

They are on shore at last; then, while they are lost in the most
astonishing caper of all, the fox dashes among them, throwing them
into the wildest confusion. His first snap never fails to thro