Ellis, Thomas

STRANGE BUT TRUE.--On Wednesday last Mr. Thomas Ellis, of Verulam, brought into Fenelon Falls the skin of a fox which he caught, the previous Friday, in an almost incredible manner. Going into the shed in which his sheet are kept, he saw the fox feasting on a dead hen in the rack; but the animal ran away at his approach and hid itself, and Mr. Ellis, thinking it had gone for good, went to the house. Some time afterwards he returned to the sheep shed, and, finding the fox again busy at the hen, he silently closed the door, crept up to the rack and seized the animal's tail, which was hanging out between two of the slats. Mr. Ellis then carried his prisoner at arm's length to the house, and having exhibited it to the family, took it outside and knocked it on the head. As no one in the neighbourhood is known to have had a tame fox, the inference is that the animal must have been desperately hungry, or it would never have allowed itself to be captured in so simple a manner.