All wild dogs are cowards. Only in companies do wolves dare to attack men, or strong beasts like buffaloes. Jackals and dingoes seldom annoy human beings. Jackals, called in the Bible foxes, prefer to prowl at night, and to find the prey which other beasts have killed. In ancient times they hung about battle-fields, and fed upon the bodies of the slain. So David says of his enemies: "They shall fall by the sword; they shall be a portion for foxes."

8. RENARD.

THIS name means cunning, and it was first used as the name of an animal, in a very old poem entitled "Renard the Fox." It is the right name for the fox, for he is cunning in his ways. He is the only one among the wild dogs that has his den in a burrow in the ground; and he is wise enough to avoid the trouble of digging the den. He often drives out of their holes the rabbit or the badger, and then occupies the apartments thus vacated.

Renard soon learns all about the trap which is placed to catch his foot. He knows when a trap is set, and when it is sprung; for he found out just how his companion came to get his foot in the trap. He proposes to escape a like fate.

The bait is tempting and he means to secure it. But what shall be done about the trap which must be stepped upon to reach the bait? The jaws of the trap are spread wide open, and the slightest touch on a little pan between them will throw the jaws together, and then they will hold fast the nose or the foot that touches the pan.

"Stop!" says Renard to himself, "I've thought of a way in which I'll get the start of that old trapper. I'll dig under his trap and touch the pan from beneath. That will spring the trap and won't catch my foot." This he does, as the northern trappers say he has often done, and carries away the bait in triumph.

The trapper sees what has happened, and how Renard did it. "I will have you yet, old fellow," he says. Again he places the bait and the trap as before, except that, this time, he turns the trap upside down. Renard repeats his former trick. He digs under the trap as before; the jaws spring together, and alas! he is the trapper's prisoner at last.

Dr. Rae desired to catch some arctic foxes, which are beautiful little animals with pure white fur. He set several different traps for them, but caught none, because the cunning fellows had learned all about these devices. Then he fixed a trap which was entirely new to the foxes. It consisted of a loaded gun, set on a stand, and

pointed directly at the bait. A string, running under the snow about thirty yards, connected the trigger of the gun and the bait. Should the fox seize the bait, he would discharge the gun, and be sure to kill himself. This gun-trap killed one fox, but never a second. The crafty little rogues found the string under the snow, and carefully gnawing it in two, captured the bait without harm from the gun.

Two gentlemen in New Jersey went out to hunt rabbits. In a low, bushy swamp the dogs started a fox, and off they went in swift pursuit. After a chase of two miles, the fox entered a dense thicket, and, making a circuit of the place, returned to the point from which he started.

Here one of the sportsmen shot at him, and the fox fell, apparently dead.

But he was not so dead as he seemed to be. As the hunter stooped to pick him up, instantly he rose upon his legs and escaped. For two hours and a half Renard practiced his wiles on the dogs in the thicket. But at last he was taken, carried home by the men, and thrown into a corner of the room. Now, surely, he seemed to be dead.

The family sat down to supper. Finding all busily engaged, the fox ventured to look about, and raised himself on his fore legs; but observing that he was watched, he again pretended to be dead. One of the party, to ascertain whether he really was alive, passed a piece of burning paper under his nose. Renard was still apparently as senseless as a stone. However, he found that his cunning would not secure his freedom, and he submitted with grace to his fate. The next morning he was as well as ever, excepting a slight wound on his shoulder.

9. SAMSON AND THE FOXES.

WHEN Samson, in his anger, undertook to punish the Philistines, he gathered three hundred foxes. These animals were jackals; not the

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"little foxes that spoil the vines. Samson made them serve his purpose, though cruel, was very ingenious. He wanted to burn the wheat-fields of the Philistines, and he meant the jackals should carry the fire.

Of course, with fire-brands tied to their tails, they would run as fast as they could; for all

that if he let them loose singly, each would run straight to his den. He therefore first tied their tails together, so that each would pull the other away from his den, and they would rush for the corn-field as the nearest refuge. Then to the tails, so connected, he attached the firebrands.

O what a whining and howling must have gone out from the throats of the three hundred frantic jackals, as they went scattering and pulling, wheeling and whisking, with flaming tails, through the standing corn! Samson may have rejoiced in his revenge, but the poor jackals! how did they feel, when, burned asunder, fright