54 



ZOOLOGY. 



There is likewise no reasonable question of the specific identity of the 

 American and European Red Fox, in which latter the same color-variations 

 occur. Indeed, it lias been surmised, apparently not without some founda- 

 tion, that the American are lineal descendants of imported European indi- 

 viduals, and this hypothesis is more strongly colored from the fact of the 

 abundance of the animal in settled districts. It is difficult, however, to 

 suppose that an animal could have become in such short time so universally 

 spread over a continent ; a more reasonable hypothesis ascribing to it an 

 original circumpolar distribution in warmer times gone by, whence it has 

 spread southward in either hemisphere. This, it will be observed, by no 

 means excludes the supposition that many of the animals may have also 

 sprung from direct importation. Subjected for a long period to different 

 climatic conditions, it is no wonder that the American has repeatedly been 

 considered as a distinct species, on the grounds of certain slight observable 

 differences. It offers a case parallel with many others we shall have to 

 notice in this volume. According to Audubon, whose opportunities for 

 comparison were ample, the American Red Fox "is a little the largest; its 

 legs are less robust ; its nose is shorter and more pointed ; the eyes are nearer 

 together ; its feet and toes more thickly clothed with fur ; its ears shorter ; it 

 has a finer and larger brush ; and its fur is much softer, finer, and of a 

 brighter color." These differences, it will be observed, are all comparative, 

 not positive; and, although undoubtedly subsisting on the average, are 

 liable to be nullified by the first specimens one may happen to compare. 

 It is going quite far enough to admit a geographical distinction of race. 



The generic structural discrepancies, the dissimilarity in color, and a 

 difference in build, easier to remark upon . comparison than to express in 

 words, readily distinguish the Red Fox, in any of its pelages, from the Gray 

 Fox ( Urocyon mrglnianus). 



Specimen. 



