A BABY-FOX, 445 



all the young would be called "black," although the head and shoul- 

 ders are brownish, and the tail is tipped with white. 



In this connection it is to be noted that Audubon and Bachman * 

 had once a mother and a litter of seven young foxes ; the former was 

 nearly jet black, with the tip of the tail white ; three of the young 

 were said to be black, the other four red ; one of the blackest was 

 kept alive for six months, and as it grew older the less it became like 

 the " black," and the more like the " cross " fox ; whence they con- 

 clude that both the " cross " and " black " foxes are mere varieties 

 of the " red ; " in this opinion Mr. J. A. Allen concurs.'' 



But there is something more to be said of oio' little fox and its 

 mother : a closer examination of the former shows that there are two 

 kinds of hair corresponding to the two colors; the body and tail, and 

 upper parts of the legs^are thickly covered with a kind of soft wool, 

 of a smoke-color, but the head presents longer and reddish-colored 

 hairs ; and these same hairs are scattered over the body, more thickly 

 in front than behind ; the two kinds are as thick brush-wood and sap- 

 lings ; under the microscope they are even more unlike; for the 

 " wool " is crinkled, and its texture very transparent ; the pith seem- 

 ing to be divided by transverse partitions into a single row of nearly 

 square spaces ; the hairs, on the other hand, are straight, and two or 

 three times as thick, and their texture much more dense, apparently 

 from a crowding of the partitions and interspaces ; and one thing 

 more, the hairs are reddish only as far as they project above the wool, 

 the deeper portions, like the wool, being smoke-colored. Now, the 

 same is the case in the old fox, with this difference, that the hairs are 

 so long and so numerous as to completely hide the woolly coat, and 

 so give their own color to the animal ; the wool presents the same 

 appearance under the microscope as in the young one, and seems to be 

 little if any larger, but the hairs are at least ten times as thick at their 

 base, and taper thence gradually to the tip. We may easily imagine, 

 then, not only that in some cases the long hairs themselves might be 

 black throughout, but also that, as in the case mentioned by Audubon, 

 an increase of the number of reddish-tipped hairs daring growth 

 might convert an apparently black fox into a red one.® 



Finally, it is certain that, were the old fox to lose her hairs and re- 

 tain only the wool, she would be as black as her young, excepting, 

 perhaps, upon the head." 



After the color, the next most striking difference between the old 

 and young foxes is the /orm of the head: that of the former is re- 

 markable for its length, and for the total lack of forehead, the up- 



^ "Quadrupeds of Xorth America," vol. i., pp. 52, 53. 



2 " Catalogue of the Mammals of Massachusetts ; " " Bulletin of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology," Xo. 8. 



3 In the " Natural History of the State of Xew York," De Kay says (p. 45) that the 

 young are at first covered by smoke-brown fur. 



