FOX EH. 423 



teach natural history to the class, as he observes for him- 

 self; while you accept every statement because it is utter- 

 ed by a professor, who probably never saw the animal. 

 Now, I have seen gray foxes climb trees myself; so that 

 he is right, and you owe him an apology." The crestfallen 

 birch-wiokler returned to his duties with a much less exalt- 

 ed opinion of himself, but he solaced his pride after awhile 

 by telling a friend that he was not supposed to know how 

 animals acted in America, being a stranger there ; but he 

 was positive that students, presidents of colleges, and foxes 

 at least differed from their congeners in any other part of 

 the world. 



The creature which caused this dispute is disappearing 

 before the advance of population, for, as the forest is clear- 

 ed away, it has to seek other quarters to find food and shel- 

 ter. It lives almost entirely on birds and small quadrupeds, 

 and seems indifferent whether it feasts on a grouse, hare, 

 squirrel, wood-rat, or field-mouse. As it recedes from set- 

 tlements, its place is taken by the red fox, which finds shel- 

 ter convenient to the farm-yard in a deep and tortuous bur- 

 row, whence it can make its nightly raids on the poultry. 

 It is, therefore, a much greater enemy to the farmer than 

 the other; hence every effort is made to exterminate it 

 with rifle, trap, and strychnine. 



One of the most curious specimens of the Vulpidw to 

 be found on the continent is a variety of the gray fox, 

 called the coast, island, and short-tailed fox, and known to 

 science as the Urocyon littoralis. It is the smallest mem- 

 ber of its genus, a full-grown male not being larger than a 

 house cat. It resembles the gray or woodland fox in ev- 

 ery characteristic except size; but it would seem to have 

 been formerly as large as that species, and to have been re- 

 duced to its dwarfish proportions through many genera- 

 tions of half -starved ancestors. It is found only on the 

 islands of San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa, off the 

 coast of Southern California. It lives almost entirely on 

 insects, grasshoppers forming the largest portion of its 

 food ; yet it sometimes manages to catch a sea-bird, and to 



