"Even
Reddy finds it rather a burden in wet weather when it becomes heavy
with water. That is one reason you do not find him abroad much when
it is raining or in winter when the snow is soft and wet. Reddy Fox
is at home all over the northern half of this country, and everywhere
he is the same sly, clever fellow whom you all know so well.
"In the South and some parts of the East and West, Reddy has a
cousin of about his own size whose coat is gray with red on the
sides of his neck, ears and across his breast. The under part of
his body is reddish, his throat and the middle of his breast are
white. He is called the Gray Fox. He prefers the Green Forest to
the open country, for he is not nearly as smart as his Cousin Reddy.
He is, if anything, a better runner, but his wits are slower and he
cannot so well hold his own against man. Instead of making his home
in a hole in the ground, he usually chooses a hollow tree-trunk or
hollow log. The babies are born in a nest of leaves in the bottom
of a hollow tree. In some parts of the West this Fox is called the
Tree Fox, because often he climbs up in low trees.
"The Gray Fox of the South is not the only cousin of Reddy's,"
continued Old Mother Nature. "In certain parts of the Great West,
on the plains, lives one of the smallest of Reddy's cousins,
called the Kit Fox or Swift.
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