Tlie Cross Fox, 223- 



varieties, and that the Canis crucigera of Gesner, differs from the latter 

 animal in the same way that the American Cross Fox does from the E-cd 

 one. 



The Cross Fox is frequently taken in Canada, and differs only from the 

 ti'ue Red Fox in the fur being of a finer quality, and the presence of a cross 

 ujion the shoulders. The following is a full description : — 



" Form agrees in every particular with that of the Common Red Fox ; 

 fur rather thick and long, but not thicker or more elongated than in many 

 specimens of the Red Fox that we have examined ; soles of the feet densely 

 clothed with short woolly hairs, so that the callous spots at the roots of the 

 nails are scarcely visible ; a black longitudinal stripe more or less distinct on 

 the under surface. 



Colour, — " Front of the head and back, dark grey ; the hairs being 

 black at the roots, yellowish white near the ends, and but slightly tipped 

 with black, so that the light colour of the under part of each hair showing 

 through gives the surface a grey tint, with these hairs a few others are mixed 

 that are black throughout their whole length. 



" The soft fur beneath these long hairs is of a brownish black ; inner 

 surface of ears and sides of the neck from the chin to the shoulders, pale 

 reddish yellow ; sides behind the shoulders towards the top of the back,, 

 slightly ferruginous ; fur underneath the long hair, yellowish ; tail, dark 

 brown ; fur beneath, the long hairs yellowish at base, broadly tipped with 

 black ; a line along the under surface for half its length, and broadest at its 

 termination, black ; a few white hairs intermixed, but not a suSicient number 

 to alter the general colours. The yellowish tint on each side of the neck and 

 behind the shoulders is divided by a longitudinal dark brown band on the 

 back, crossed at right angles by another running over the shoulders and 

 extending over the fore legs, forming a cross. There is another cross yet 

 more distinctly marked upon the chest ; a black stripe, extending downward 

 from the throat toward the belly, being intersected by another black line 

 which reaches over the chest from the inside of one fore-leg to the other. — ■ 

 Hence the name of this animal does not originate in its ill nature, or by reason 

 pf its having any peculiarly savage propensity, as might be presumed, but 

 from the singular markings we have just described." * 



The habits of this animal are the same as those of the Red Fox. It is 

 not so common, and its skin is worth in the market about three timea as 

 much. 



The three foxes described in the preceding pages are all that inhabit the 

 Oanadas, but farther north we have another and very distinct species withia 

 the British Territories. 



* Audubon & Bachman^ vol. I, page 46. 



