MAMMALS CANIDAE VULPES VELOX. 



133 



List of specimens. 



VULPES VELOX. 



Kit Fox. Swift Fox. 



Cams velox, SAY, in Long's Exped. R. Mts. I, 1823, 487. 

 HARLAN, F. Am. 1825, 91. 

 GODMAN. N. H. I, 282. 



MAX. Reise Nord-Amerika, II, 1841, 44, 256. 

 Vulpes velox, AUD. & BACH. N. A. Quad. II, 1851, 13 ; pi. lii. 

 Cants cinereo-argentatus, " SABINE, in Franklin's Jour. 658." 

 Canis (Vulpes) cinereo-argentatus, RICH. F. B. A. I, 1829, 98. 

 Canw microtus, " REICHENBACH, Regnum Animale, I, 10, figs. 72, 73," as quoted by WAGNER in Wiegmann'a 



Archiv, III, 1837, H, 162. 



REICHENBACH, Universum des Thierreiches, 1, 1846, 43. 

 IB. Raubsaugt. 1852, 100, figs. 72, 73. (Kit Fox of Leipsic fur traders.) 

 Kit Fox, LEWIS & CLARK. 



Sp. CH. Smaller than red fox. Head short, broad. Ears small. Legs short. Tail very dense, cylindrical, and bushy ; 

 about half as long as the body and head. General color above, including ears and tail, yellowish gray ; on the back conspicu 

 ously grizzled. Sides and portions of the legs pale reddish yellow ; rest of legs and beneath, whitish. Tail tipped with black. 

 No black on the ears. 



This small fox is considerably less in size than the red or gray fox, and differs from both so 

 strongly as to be at once recognizable among the American species. The under fur is remark 

 ably full and dense, much more so than in the red fox, and the interspersed longer hairs exceed 

 in length the under fur so little as to permit it to be readily seen. The limbs are rather short 

 but stout, the feet shorter and the body lower than in the red fox. There are the usual naked 

 callosities on the feet, as in foxes generally. The soles are, however, so densely covered 

 with long woolly hairs, as to conceal them from view. The fore claws appear rather sharper 

 and more curved than those of the red fox. The head is considerably shorter and broader than 

 in the red fox. The ears are very much smaller ; they aro thick and densely coated with hair 

 on both sides, except around the meatus. 



