CANIS. VULPES. 471 



475. mexicanus (Canis), Linn., Syst. Nat., I, 1766, p. 60. 

 MEXICAN TIMBER WOLF. Lobo in Spanish America. 



Type locality. Mexico. 



Geogr. Distr. States of Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico; range 

 unknown. 



Genl. Char. Size large; tail longer than half the body without 

 head ; prevailing hues clouded yellow, white, and black. 



Color. Nose buff on sides, grizzled on top; face and chin mixed 

 black and white; sides of face gray; back black; hind part of neck 

 grayish white; sides and under parts buffy white; throat and under 

 parts of neck dark gray and white in patches ; outer side of limbs rich 

 buff, inner side white; tail above mixed black and white, beneath 

 white, tip black; feet pale yellowish white; ears deep buff, the tips 

 grizzled black and buff. 



Measurements. Total length, 1580; tail to end of hairs, 470 

 (skin). Skull: occipito-nasal length, 226; Hensel, 213.5; zygomatic 

 breadth, 126.5; mastoid breadth, 74.5; median length of nasals, 73; 

 from alveolus of incisor to palatal arch, 119; postpalatal length, 95; 

 crown of upper sectorial, 26.5; length of lower jaw, 183; height at 

 coronoid process, 72; length of lower sectorial, crown, 29. 



Foxes, with their pointed noses and long bushy tails, are familiar 

 animals to most persons. The very shape of the head gives these 

 creatures that aspect of cunning and sagacity for which they are 

 eminently noted. Foxes are fond of solitude, and live alone in a 

 burrow which each individual has dug for himself or appropriated by 

 force from some other animal, the sufferer being frequently the 

 badger. Sometimes a family may inhabit a single burrow, the dog 

 Fox remaining with the mother after the cubs are born, and woe to 

 the occupants of the hen coops in their vicinity while they remain in 

 residence. Two genera of Foxes are recognized in North America, 

 Urocyon and Vulpes, distinguished by the presence or absence of a 

 hidden stiff -haired mane in the tail, and by some cranial characters. 



88. Vulpes. 



T 3-3. piZl- p4i2. M?n?_ . 

 S-3' U i-i' *Vv M - 2 - 2 -40. 



Vulpes *Briss. Reg. Anim., 1758, p. 239. Type Canis vulpes 

 Linnaeus. Frisch. Natur. Syst. vierfiiss. Thiere, in Tab., Gen. 



1775- 

 Leucocyon Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1868, p. 521. 



*Should Brisson not be an authority for genera, then Frisch takes prece- 

 dence for Vulpes. 



