A Neiv Bed Fox from Noca Scotia. 55 



broader between tlie orbits tiiid narrower aci-oss the palate. There is also 

 a very striking diflerence in the upper outline of the skulls when viewed 

 in profile. This line is nearly straight in Vulpes vidpes, while in V. penn- 

 sylrardca it dips decidedly in front of the root of the zygoma and rises 

 between the orbits. 



I can find no name based on the large northern red fox. 

 Desmarest, in 1820, called the ' cross fox ' Canis decussatus, and refers 

 to Geofl^'roy Collection du INIuseuni.* It is given as an inhabitant of 

 " L'Amerique Septentrionale." As all three races of our red fox occa- 

 sionally show this color phase, the name cannot be said to apply to one 

 more than another. 



J)esmarest's C. argenlahif^ is said to inhabit America and Asia. Canis 

 argi'7itutas ' The silver fox ' dates (so far as 1 can ascertain) from Shaw's 

 General Zoology, 1800-1826, and is based on Pennant, who says it in- 

 habits the forests of Louisiana (in his day the whole lower Mississippi 

 Valley). This name must therefore have been given to the ' silver gray ' 

 phase of the Southern red fox T'. jwunsylraitica tijplca. 



Richardson in Fauna Boreali-Americana, 1829, gives three ' red foxes ' : 

 Caiiix {Vulpes) fulvus (Desmarest). f 

 Catiis fulnis var. /? decussatus (Geoflfroy, Coll. du Mus.). 

 Canis fuU'us var. y argentalus (Desmarest). 



Richardson's Canis fidvus is not Vulpes pennsijlvanica h/pica, but the sub- 

 species named Vulpes macrourus by Baird in 1852. Richardson assigns 

 no different range to his var. argentatus, which must be assumed to be 

 the ' silver gray ' phase of the same form*. He quotes a description of 

 var. decussatus from Jose])h Sabine's Appendix to Franklin's Journey, 

 1823, p. 656. All Sabine says as to locality, under the head of this va- 

 riety, is "The specimen received from Capt. Franklin and that from the 

 Hudson Bay Company nearly correspond." The animal described might 

 have been an example of any for-m in the ' cross ' phase and most prob- 

 ably was the prairie fox, V. pennsylvanica viaeroura (Baird). 



While all our red foxes sometimes present the various different coloi- 

 phases, still 'cross' and 'silver gray' foxes are more common northward. 

 This corresponds with the general tendency among our mammals which 

 are subject to melanism. It is now known that black woodchucks and 

 black gray squirrels are more often met witli at the northern part of the 

 range of these species, and the same will probably prove to be the case 

 with many other species. 



* This reference I have been unable to verify, only one copy of the work 

 being known to exist, and that in the Paris Museum. Under the head 

 of Canis decussatus Geoff", in Nouveau Dictionnaire D'Histoire Naturelle, 

 18 1(), vol. 6, p. 518, appears the following, apparently written by Desma- 

 rest : " Cette espece est du nord de I'ancien continent. Selon M. Cuvier 

 elle ne diff"ere point de celle du renard conmiun." From this I infer that 

 Geoff roy gave the name Canis decussatus to the European 'Cross Fox.' 



t Canis fidvus of Desmarest, 1820, is, of course, antedated by Canis vulpes 

 var. (5 pennsylvanicus Boddtert, 1785, as sliown by Gray (P. Z. S., 1868 

 p. 518). 



