3o6 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. XL 



Snyder, Bull. Wis. Nat. Hist. Soc, II, 1902, p. 122 (Wisconsin). Jackson, 

 Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XX, 1907, p. 74 (S. W. Missouri). lb., Bull. Wis. Nat. 

 Hist. Soc, VI, 1908, p. 26 (Wisconsin). Hollister, Bull. Wis. Nat. Hist. 

 Soc, VI, 1908, p. 140 (Wisconsin). Hahn, Ann. Rept. Dept. Geol. & Nat. 

 Resources Ind., 1908 (1909), p. 552 (Indiana). Howell, Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 Wash., XXIII, 1910, p. 32 (Illinois and Kentucky). 



Vulpes vulgaris AhhEN, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1869 (1871), p. 182 (Iowa). 

 Herrick, Geol. & Nat. Hist. Surv. Minn., Bull. No. 7, 1892, p. 80 (Minnesota). 



Vulpes fulva Wood, Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1910, p. 571 (Illinois). 



Vulpes fiilvus argentatus Snyder, Bull. Wis. Nat. Hist. Soc, II, 1902, p. 122 (Wis- 

 consin). 



Type locality — Virginia. 



Distribution — North America, from Hudson Bay to northern Georgia, 

 west to Nebraska and in the Northwest to the Saskatchewan region ; 

 replaced in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the West by allied 

 forms. 

 Description — Adult: General color of upper parts yellowish brown, 

 the middle reddish brown; throat, middle of belly and under sides 

 of legs white or whitish, often more or less tinged with dusky; 

 front of legs and feet largely brownish black; terminal half of upper 

 surface of ears dark brown; tail yellowish brown, the hairs more or 

 less tipped with brownish black; end of tail white. 



Young pups have the muzzle blackish; head dusky, with sides of 

 face light yellowish and nearly the whole of the back of ears black; 

 tail dusky with the tip white. 

 Measurements — Total length, about 38 in. (965 mm.); tail verte- 

 brae, 14.50 in. (386 mm.) ; hind foot, 5.75 in. (146.4 mm.). 

 Remarks — The so-called Black or Silver Fox and Cross Fox are color 

 phases of the Red Fox. In the Black or Silver phase the general 

 color is black, the hairs being largely tipped with white. The Cross 

 Fox has a black streak across the shoulders and another down the 

 middle of the back, the body color being variable but showing more 

 or less gray and fulvous. These variations in pelage were at one 

 time considered to represent different species and were given specific 

 names.* 



The Red Fox occurs in more or less numbers throughout Illinois 

 and Wisconsin, wherever the country is not too thickly settled. It is 

 common in most parts of the interior of both states and I have examined 

 specimens from Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, Langlade, Oconto and Dunn 

 counties in northern Wisconsin, and one from Alexander Co., southern 

 Illinois. Howell records it from Union County (/. c, 1910, p. 32), 

 and a number of hunters with whom I have corresponded inform me it 

 is common in most of the southern counties. 



* Silver Fox, Vulpes argentatus; Cross, Fox, Vulpes decussatus. 



