562 



THE CARNIVORES 



but six teats. Foxes are characterized by their slight build, their long, bushy tails, 

 which are nearly always considerably more than half the length of the head and 

 body and short limbs ; while they generally have large ears. All the members of 

 the group are chiefly nocturnal in their habits, hiding in holes or burrows made by 

 themselves, or in ravines, or amongst grass or bushes during the day. They are, as. 

 a rule, solitary, and rarely if ever associate in numbers as other Canida do. All the 



species are more or 

 less insectivorous 

 and frugivorous ; but 

 the more tropical 

 forms appear to live 

 on insects more than 

 do those which in- 

 habit temperate 

 climates. All are 

 highly intelligent 

 and famous for cun- 

 ning. The group 

 is distributed over 

 North America, Asia, 

 The smaller African species 



SKELETON OF FOX. 



Europe, and Africa, but is unknown in South America, 

 are distinguished by the inordinate length of their ears. 



Probably every Englishman thinks he knows the common fox suffi- 

 : ciently well to run no risk of confounding it with any other animal ; 

 and if our observations were confined to the ordinary foxes of Europe we should 

 have no great difficulty in deciding that they might be included under one name, 

 although even among these there is a considerable amount of variation in size and 

 color. When we take into consideration the larger foxes of North America and In- 

 dia, we find a number of forms which, while approximating more or less to the 

 British animal, yet differ so remarkably in coloration that it is at first sight hard to 

 believe that they" all belong to the same species ; but the researches of zoologists 

 have shown that all these various modifications pass more or less completely into 

 the coloration of the typical European fox, and must be regarded as mere local varie- 

 ties of that widely-spread species. 



Including, then, all these varieties under one title, the common fox has a more 

 extensive distribution than any other member of the entire family ; its range em- 

 bracing the whole of Europe and Asia, north of and including the Himalayas, from 

 Iceland to Japan ; and also comprising North America from Hudson's Bay and 

 Labrador to the latitude of Northern Mexico, and Africa north of the Sahara and 

 Sudan. The size of the fox, according to Mivart, is subject to such an amount of 

 variation that if the length of the head and body of a specimen at one end of the 

 series be represented by 100, that of the one at the other will be equivalent to 170. 

 The length of the tail and ears is, however, much less variable. 



The ordinary English fox, as represented in our colored plate, is of a reddish- 

 brown color above, and white beneath, while the outer surfaces of the ears, and 



