When no individual track is visible, as is the case in dry snow, the blurry mark of the fox brush which is frequently seen at intervals in the trail settles any existing doubt. Some foxes, as well as wolves and coyotes, drag their feet to the same extent as does a dog that walks badly, and because of this the tracker may disregard as immaterial the prominence or absence of the drag made by the toenails.
Hunting foxes with hounds is undoubtedly the most popular method.
Calling him like the wolf and coyote yields good results for the still-hunter, but of all methods I prefer to shoot them during the rutting season, which occurs in January. The rutting season of coyotes is during February, and that of wolves from January 1st until April, approximately speaking. I have seen wolves "run" as early as December 28th, and have killed pups about two weeks old after the middle of June.
It is on snowy, blustering days that, in the depth of the woods, the fox is holding high carnival, and his and her tracks run in all directions. Watching where the trails are most numerous soon furnishes work for the gun and trophies for the hunter, for on such occasions the fox seems to have lost the senses of sight and smell which at other times are so well developed. It is a singular fact that they always run the most during the worst weather. In driving it is impossible to tell where a wolf or coyote will leave a certain thicket, beyond that it will not leave it where it entered; but a fox is always the sure victim of the hunter if he knows the fox path, for like the bear or old boar, he and every one of his tribe will always leave a thicket at the same point.
In calling, an old fox, like a wolf, comes stealthily, while a young one, like a coyote, will generally be in a hurry to get there.
WHAT TRACKING MEANS, AND
SOME HUNTING METHODS
BY the term "tracking" we usually understand the following of a trail, but if a hunter attempts to get a shot at his quarry solely by this means he has to depend on good luck or physical endurance. The cougar is, in my opinion, the most perfect tracker and most successful still-hunter; he tracks, but he does not follow the trail like a pack of wolves or dogs; he uses it only as a guide, following it for an occasional fifty or one hundred yards, which is to my mind the proper method for the human hunter.
Tracking also means the ascertaining of the preferred stand of certain animals. If, for example, the rutting place of the biggest elk in a district is located by comparison of various tracks, and the bull is shot later by waiting for, or stalking him at his favorite place, he undoubtedly falls a victim to tracking. Again, a track of a big bull moose is seen, and though it is too old to warrant expectations of finding the animal still in the locality, it is followed and determines where the bull made his resting-place. When, weeks later, perhaps, the fresh trail of the same bull is seen and again the previously preferred hillside, or another specific part of the woods is hunted over carefully without attention to the trail, but with all consideration for wind-direction and lay of country, and a fair shot is obtained, can it be doubted that tracking was responsible for the downfall of this monarch of the woods? If so, let the doubter once follow a moose track straight and try to get an easy shot: he will probably change his mind. The locating of game, sometimes weeks in advance of the time when the shooting is to be done, is not by any means the least feature in the art of tracking. To reduce, if possible, the annual slaughter of men by careless hunters, it may not be amiss to discuss certain hunting methods which have given me the most satisfaction, and which obviate the possibility of being fired at by mistake.
Stalking along in grown-up timber and other open places, the sportsman will run across the trails of all the animals which have moved in the district he covers, and, having decided which trail he wishes to follow, he keeps on in the direction it leads. If it enters a thicket, a circuitous route—under wind—will lead him to where the animal has passed out, or show him that it is "fast," i. e., in the thicket. If the former, he, of course, has to pursue the same tactics until the game is located. The rest is generally easy enough, and that without entering any thicket, where, as we all know, it usually happens that hunters are mistaken for deer.