FOXES. 109 



others. The homologies of an allied species may be reproduced along with the qualities of the 

 direct progenitors of the species. 



Foxes. The Foxes are a well-marked section of this family, differing from the Wolves and Jackals 

 in various characters, but always at once recognisable by the peculiar odour whicli tliey emit. 'So 

 Dog ever has the foxy smell, no Fox is without it. All the stories as to crosses between Dogs and 

 Foxes I believe to be unfounded. 



The range of the Foxes is verj^ similar to that of the common Wolf ; in fact, it is the same, with 

 the addition of a more southerly extension, which, in the Old AVorld, does not go further south than 

 the Mediterranean district, including North Africa, and iu the Now not beyond Central America. 

 The Arctic fox is found in the boreal or arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America, being one of 

 the very few circumpolar animals whose characters are everywhere identical. It occurs in Sjjitz- 

 bergen and in Iceland,* as well as upon all the Arctic mainlands. This and the Deeming are 

 the only mammals which can be considered aboriginal in Iceland, but it is fully as likely that they 

 may have crossed from Greenland by means of sea-floes or icebergs. 



A doubt similar to that entertained regarding the Wolves exists as to the identity of the 

 common red Fox of Eastern North America with the common Fox of Europe. Dr. Giebel con- 

 siders them the same,t but in this family, perhaps, eveti more than in others, I think he carries 

 the suppression of species to an excessive extent. He throws together no less than twenty sup- 

 posed species. Some from the lofty Ilimmalayahs and the frozen Steppes of Central Asia, and 

 others from Nubia and Dm-four. I cannot agree with him in this. Such differences in localities 

 are almost sure to be attended with a difference in character ; and altliough in some families the 

 distinction of characters is slighter than in others, when we know that they are so we must 

 make corresponding allowances. As to the American Red Fox, for instance, although verj- much alike, 

 there are, certainly, appreciable differences between it and our common species. In the American 

 Fox, the texture of the fur is longer, softer, and silkier ; its tail is more bushy, and its longest 

 hairs are three inches instead of two inches long ; its colour is brighter, and has more of a golden 

 hue, which gives the American species much beauty ; the muzzle is shorter, and the ej-es closer 

 set, and there are a number of other distinctions of about the same value. Wagner refuses to 

 admit the distinction of species, and asserts that the differences are owing to the climate, the 

 sf)ecimens which he examined having been boreal; but the distinctions, such as they are, are found 

 in examj)les from all latitudes, and it is always easy to separate the American from European 

 specimens. Notwithstanding this, so close are the two species, that there is a prevalent impression 

 that the American species is the descendant of individuals of the European red Fox, imported into 

 America many years ago, and allowed to run wild and overspread the country ; an impression 

 which receives unexpected support from the fact that there have been as yet no remains of the 

 red Fox detected among the fossils derived from the Carlisle and other bone-caves. The grey 

 Fox is abundantly represented there, but not a trace of the other.J 



* Mr. Ncwtou makes the following remark upon the analogous to the circumstance of the Alpine hare (Leptis 



colour of the Arctic Fox in Iceland : — " I have never seen timidus Linn, non av.ct.), always becoming white iu winter 



it remarked, though it is unquestionably the case, that in Scandinavia, generally so in Scotland, but seldom in 



nearly all the Icelandic examples of Caais lagopus arc Ireland." — Alfred Newtox, in " Proc. Zool. Soc." Dec. 



blue' foxes ; that is to say, their winter coat is nearly 1864, p. 497. 



the same colour as their summer coat. This fact, I think, t Giebel, " Saugethierc," 18.")9, p. 827. 



must be taken in connexiou with the comparatively mild % General F.eport on Zoology in " United States' Pacific 



climate which Icclaud enjny.s in winter, aud if so, is Railroad Exploration," vol. viii. p. 130, Washingtcu, l»b~ . 



