16 On the Fur-bearing Animals 



of the back, where the hairs are annulated with grey, this occa- 

 sionally wanting. Tail tipped with white. Baird. 



In treating on the different varieties of foxes I have spoken of, it is 

 extremely difficult to mark the line where one ends and the other 

 commences. During my residence in these regions I have seen every 

 shade of colour among them, from a bright flame tint to a perfectly 

 black pelt, always excepting the tip of the tail, which in all cases is 

 white. Even the judgment of an experienced fur trader is sometimes 

 at fault to decide, in bartering, to which of the three varieties a skin 

 should belong, as they bear different prices. Still, notwithstand- 

 ing this, I consider these colours to have been produced by in- 

 termixture of breed. The different varieties, being in my opin- 

 ion, quite as distinct as those of the human race. And I do 

 not think that any of the progeny of two pairs of red foxes would 

 be either black or cross. In cohabiting the male foxes accom- 

 pany the females in bands of from 3 to 10, much in the manner 

 of domestic dogs. At Durwegan on Peace River, I have repeat- 

 edly observed this. The males fight violently for the possession 

 of the females, many are maimed and some killed. A number 

 of males thus in all likelihood cohabit with the same female, 

 which gives rise to the varieties of colour in a litter. Instances 

 are reported as having occurred in which all the varieties were 

 taken in one den, but of this I am rather doubtful. It is very 

 difficult to tell the future colour of cub foxes, the red appear to 

 be cross, and the cross to be silver, which may have caused an 

 error, though I write under correction. I have seen many Indians 

 even mistaken in this. They have brought me live cub foxes for 

 silver, which on growing up proved to be cross. My own theory 

 is that the silver fox is the offspring of two silver parents, the 

 cross, of a silver and red, the red, of two reds, and the different 

 shades being caused by fresh inter-breeds. Thus two negroes will 

 have neither white nor mulatto children, nor will two whites have 

 black or mulatto offspring. I do not know whether I have ex- 

 plained my ideas on the subject clearly or not. They are the re- 

 sult of my experience on a subject to which I have given no small 

 attention. I have often robbed fox dens, and have also bred the 

 animals, and the summing up of this part of my subject may be 

 thus made — like colours reproduce like, black and red being ori- 

 gins, the cross is the fruit of intermixture between these shades. I 

 kept a pair of cross foxes in confinement at Slave Lake, their 

 offspring were all cross, I had only one litter when the bitch 

 died. 



