D E S C R I P T IO N
O f a very characteristic Specimen o f the Cross Fox, quoted from Mr»Sabine.
“ The front of the head is gray, composed of black and white hairs, the latter predominating
on the forehead; the ears are covered with soft black fur behind $ and with long yellowish
hairs within ; the back of the neck and shoulders are pale ferruginous, crossed with dark
stripes, one extending from the head to the back, the other passing the first at right angles
over the shoulders ; the rest of the back is gray, composed of black fur, tipped with white :
the sides are pale ferruginous, running into the gray of the back ; the chin and all the under
parts, as well as the legs, are black, a few. of the hairs being tipped with white; the under
part of the tail and the parts of the body adjacent are pale yellow, the gray colour of the
back extends to the upper part of the tail, at the commencement—the rest of the tail is dark
above and lighter beneath, being tipped with white. The character of the fur is thick and
long.” The quantity of red fur, and the brightness of its colours, vary in different specimens;
and the cruciform markings are scarcely apparent in some specimens, which from the fineness
o f their fur are acknowledged to be Cross Foxes.
C a n i s f u l v u s , var. y . a r g e n t a t u s . Black or Silver Fox.
Renard noir bu Hahyuha. Sagard Theodat, Canada, p. 744.
European Fox var. a. Black, Pennant, Arctic Zool., vol. i. p. 46.
Renard noir ou Argenté. Geoff rot, Collect, du Museum.
Grizzle Fox. Hutchins, MSS.
Renard Argenté. F. Cuvier, Mamtn. lith. 5 livr.
Canis argentatus. Desmarest, Mammal., p. 203. Sabine, Franklin's Journey, p. 657. Harlan,
Fauna, p. 8 8 .
The Black or Silver Fox. Godman, Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 274
TschernoburL Russians.
This variety is more rare than the Cross Fox, a greater number than four or
five being seldom taken in a season at any one post in the tur countries *, though
the hunters no sooner find out the haunts of one than they use every art to catch
it, because its fur fetches six times the price of any other fur produced in North
America. La Hontan speaks of a black fox skin as being in his time worth its
* Foxes of a corresponding colour seem to be equally rare in Europe. “ The Silver or Black Fox is so rare, that
Seldom more than three or four are taken in the course of a year on the Lofoden islands, and I never heard of its
having been met with in the other parts of Norway.”—A. de Capell Brooke, Travels in Norway, p. 285.
weight in gold. Although, from what I observed, I do not think that the Black
Fox displays more cunning in avoiding the snare than the red one, yet its rarity,
and the eagerness of the hunters to take it, cause them to think it peculiarly shy.
“ It is to be remarked,’’ says Pennant, “ that the more desirable the fur is, the
more cunning and difficult to be taken is the fox that owns it.” Mr. Hutchins also
informs us “ the blacker the fur the lesser the fox,” but neither is this latter
remark consonant with my own observation.
Mr. F. Cuvier mentions that the smell of the American Black Fox is very
disagreeable, but differs a little from that of the Common Fox of Europe. He
thinks the identity of the American species with the Black Fox of the north of
Europe doubtful. The Black Fox of America inhabits the same districts with the
Red Fox, and is never seen far within the barren grounds. In some instances,
however, the Sooty Fox described in page 89 may have been mistaken for it.
D E S C R I P T IO N .
The Cants argentatus is sometimes found entirely of a shining black colour, with the
exception of the end of the tail, which is white. I t is more common to observe it with
parts of its fur hoary from an intermixture of hairs tipped with white. A very fine specimen
preserved in the Hudson’s Bay Museum has the head and back hoary, most of the long
hairs on those parts being white from the tip for a considerable way down. The downy fur
at the root of the longer hairs has a dark blackish-brown colour. The nose, legs, sides of
the neck, and all the under parts, are dusky, approaching to black. The tail is black. Its
ears are erect, triangular, but not very acute, and are covered with a soft fur of a brownish-
black colour. In some individuals the fur, which in most parts is hoary, has a shining black
colour unmixed with white, from the crown of the head to the middle of the back and down
the outside of the shoulders, being an approach to the cruciform arrangement. Like the two
preceding varieties, the Black and Silver foxes have the soles of their feet thickly covered with
wool in the winter, no callous spots being then visible.