92 FAUNA AMERICANA. 



Inhabits Missouri country; is j)robably the 

 same animal mentioned by Lewis and Clark, un- 

 der the name of burrowing fox, vol. 2. p. 351. 



Species. 



13. Canis lagopiis, isatis fox, Linn. Gmel. Erx- 

 leb. Bodd. Renard bleu. Buff. C. lagopiis, Sabine, 

 append, p. 658. (Encycl. pi. 106. fig. 3.) 



Char. Essent. Hair very long, thick and soft ; 

 fur cinereus, or of a uniform clear brown in sum- 

 mer; white in winter. 



Dimensions. Total length from twenty-two 

 inches to two feet ; tail reaching to the ground ; 

 about one foot high before. 



Description. Head short; snout elongated; 

 ears hairy ; soles of the feet covered with long 

 hairs ; tail long and very bushy ; hairs of the body, 

 about two inches in length, of a cinereus or uni- 

 form clear brown colour, changing to a beautiful 

 clear white in winter. The young animal is 

 sometimes of a dark gray colour, sometimes yel- 

 lowish-white ; occasionally marked with a brown 

 line upon the back and a transverse line of the 

 same colour upon the shoulders, on which ac- 

 count they have been called the crucial fox, a 

 name already applied to a species of fox properly 

 so called. 



Habit. Living in the coldest countries of the 

 earth, in mountainous districts, but not in forests. 

 They enter in rut during the month of March, 



