134 CANIDA. 
CARNIVORA. CANID LE. 
Fossil, nat. size, Kent’s Hole. 
VULPES VULGARIS. Common Fox. 
Renard fossile, Cuvier, Ann. du Mus. ix. p. 485; Ossem. Foss. iv. 
p. 461. 
Canis speleus minor, Waener, Kast. Archiv. fur Natur, xv. p. 17. 
Fox, BuckLaANp, Reliquiz Diluviane, p. 15. 
Canis vulpes, Owen, Report of British Association, 1842. 
In entering upon the consideration of the fossil remains 
of a species of Canide of the size of the Fox, we cease to 
encounter those difficulties which beset the investigation of 
the fossils of the larger species, discussed in the preceding 
sections. 
No Naturalist or Comparative Anatomist has ever had 
recourse to the Fox for the primary source of any of the 
domestic races of Dogs, and their specific identity has never 
been maintained. The varieties of Dog which have dege- 
nerated to the size of the Fox usually exhibit, in an exag- 
gerated degree, those characters which distinguish the skele- 
ton of the Dog from that of the Fox. The known wild 
