CATALOGUE OF VERTEBRATES. 509^ 



" Formerly was very abundant throughout the State, but now 

 is very rarely met with. Like the wolf and cougar, it has been 

 too much persecuted to still add to the fame of our State, and 

 were it not that its burrows rendered it less easily found, it would 

 have long since been extinct. The last specimen seen in Mercer 

 county was in 1850, and it is doubtful if others are now living 

 in that or the adjoining counties. The northern and extreme 

 southern sections of the State are the favored localities, if they 

 exist at all. They prefer heavily-timbered hillsides to any other 

 locality, and at night make ' telling ' raids on hen-roosts." 



UROCYON, Bd. 



U. cinereo-argentatus, Schr. ( V. virginiamis.) Gtay Fox. 



Fur dusky ; hairs hoary at tip ; tip of tail usually dark. 



" In the southern counties that have salt-marsh and sea-coast 

 boundaries, and in those localities where the timber and brush 

 give sufficient shelter, the gray fox is still quite abundant. They 

 do not appear to be found in the central portion of our State, or 

 along the Delaware River. About May the bitches litter, pro- 

 ducing generally five young. The gray fox feeds largely on 

 crabs and fish ; it also robs the nests of the * mud-hen,' Rallus 

 crepitans^ and not unfrequently is sufficiently quick in its move- 

 ments to capture the sitting bird. They are frequently caught 

 and kept in hopes of their becoming tame, but they never become 

 so far domesticated as to stay at home if they are left unchained " 

 (1868). 



Family MUSTELIDiE. 



"Weasels. 



MUSTBLA, L. 



M. pennantii, Erxl. Fisher. Black Cat. 



Color variable ; belly, legs, tail and hind parts chiefly black ; 

 length more than two feet. 



'* Rarely met with. None exist in the central part of the 

 State, probably none in the southern section. About the moun- 



