This Seton book tells the life story of a beautiful, rare melanistic phase of red fox with dark fur. Like most animal stories it starts with the fox's cubhood, shows how he grows up and learns the ways of wild foxes. Much of the story is about his evasions of man's attempts to trap him, and of dogs that hunt him, especially one particular hound. There's also an interesting bit about a deer. The dark fox happens upon a fawn hidden in the grass one day, and is surprised because where he lives deer are rare, so he's never seen one. The fox becomes noted in the local community for his beautiful dark fur, and is a particular target for trappers and small boys alike who try to catch him over and over again. He finds a mate and raises cubs, and the last few chapters describe a particularly long hunt in which he must flee for his life. Happily the fox escapes (I won't tell you how though, in case you read the book- it's quite a dramatic scene!) which is not always the case at the end of Seton's animal stories.

As always I really enjoyed the artwork in the book; Seton was an accomplished wildlife artist and illustrated all his own stories. There are beautiful plates of drawings and the margins are decorated all over with line drawings in his remarkably spare, descriptive style. Some of these are purely academic showing poses or footprints of the animals, others are more humorous, all wonderful to look at.

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