18 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 
dark below and white only on the tip of the tail. 
Silver Black or Dark Silver.—Black all over, except the tip 
of the tail and the silvery hairs on the hips and 
Silver 4 forehead. 
Black.—Pure black all over, except the tip of the tail, with, 
perhaps, dark silvery hairs only discernible on 
ft close examination. 
| Silver or Light Silver.—Silvery all over, except the neck; 
No two foxes are exactly alike in colour. Three silver foxes exam- 
ined had no white tips on their tails and others had only a half dozen 
white hairs—yet the white tip is one of the marks of identification for 
the species. Others had white patches on the legs or breast, while the 
rest of the colourmg was almost pure black. 
A silver fox usually produces silver pups when mated with a pure 
red in two crosses. If the first cross produces all red pups, two plans 
may be adopted: 
(a) A male and a female pup may be crossbred, producing, on the 
average, one silver pup to three reds. 
(b) A red pup may be bred to the silver parent, producing, on the 
average, 50 per cent. red pups. 
It is a more unusual occurrence to secure a blend or intermediate 
colour from crossing a silver and ared. By breeding the pups for four 
generations to a silver, the red colour is eliminated from the pelage 
markings. The segregation of the red and silver colour appears to be 
very common in many localities, but, in others, the roan or intermediate 
form of colour is produced quite frequently, the parent characters blend- 
ing and the hybrid breeding true. 
In this connection it will be of interest to quote from a letter dated 
August 2, 1912, received from Professor W. Bateson of Cambridge Uni- 
versity, England, a naturalist of high repute and an authority on hair 
pigmentation. In the early stages of the investigation the usual opinion 
of naturalists and breeders was accepted and it was thus stated to Pro- 
fessor Bateson that silver parent foxes would produce an occasional red 
pup. This popular opinion has since been found to be usually incorrect. 
Professor Bateson’s opinion has, therefore, been proved correct in every 
detail by subsequent development, 
Professor Bateson says: 
“At first sight I should suppose silver to be a recessive to red 
and that it would always breed true. This, however, you say, is 
not the case. If silvers, really, when mated together, throw reds, 
there must be some complication which we cannot yet represent. 
