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capture yearling Deer. They have left us

The less variety, or what is more commonly called the wild
Cat, was about the size of the Fox. In other respects it is the
counterpart of the larger. It loves the thickets and other shady
coverts, and preys on small game. The female in the absence
of more secure retreats, will nurse her yound in a hollow tree
or log. They still keep a kind of unsettled residence amongst
us, but find their condition growing so precarious, that they
will soon have to yield the point

As an instance of crafty quiet stealth, in which they could
steal upon their prey; take the following In the autumn
of 1834, I sat down one afternoon, under the shade of a bush
I had not been long seated, when a slight sound drew my
eye to the left, where I saw as I thought, a Prairie chicken creep
-ing through the grass, at the distance of about one hundred and
fifty feet from me. I continued my observation & soon discovered what
it was. It crept softly onto the end of a log, and along it for a
good distance, untill the elevation of the log, and an opening
through the grass & weeds that grew along by its side, afforded
it a clear view of me. It peered cautiously and carefully
through, and appeared to take a deliberate survey, after which
^it in the same stealthy manner he crept back off the log, at the
same manner ^end he got onto it. Being willing on my
part to make what farther observation I could, I kept my position
unchanged, and waited patiently for another sight. I continued thus
for some time, untill at last concluding that he had taken his leave
in the sly manner I had observed; I was just going to rise when a
slight crackle of a dry leaf, caused me to turn my head, when
I found it approching my back, and then within less than five steps
of me. My sudden rising disipated the illusion, and put my cat to flight

The Fox finds his residence amongst us still safe enough,
for all practical purposes - He is constantly persecuted & many
hard things [illegible] against him; but bating the fact that a very young
lamb or pig, might perchance become his prey; I think he should be spared
for the service he does in in catching rabbits, and other noxious vermin

His little trickery, performed for his own safety & advantage, in justice
should commend to our sympathy, rather than our dislike