256 



THE GREY FOX. 

 V. cinereus. 



PLATE XXII* 



THERE are doubts respecting this animal's existence ; 

 it may be considered a variety of the foregoing, 

 where the fulvous is altogether obliterated ; but as 

 the ideas regarding it depend upon Catesby's figure, 

 and we believe that figure is copied from the wood- 

 cut of the common fox in Gesner, it is probable that 

 the colouring is from memory, and that, instead of 

 being entirely of a silvery grey, the smaller details 

 respecting the ears and feet, &c. were overlooked 

 or forgotten. We have seen many skins of what 

 might have been called grey foxes, but all were 

 referrible to the tri-coloured, or the cross-fox. A 

 stuffed fox, lately observed in a shop at Plymouth, 

 and which we examined, may represent the cine- 

 reus ; the specimen is of the ordinary size, densely 

 furred, with the nose, forehead, temples, nape, 

 shoulders, back, flanks, hams, and base of tail, of 

 a uniform sepia and white-grey ; the lips, cheeks, 

 throat, and belly, pure white ; the back of the ears, 

 a crescent beneath the throat, bright fulvous ; the 

 upper arms, anterior edge of the thigh, and tail to- 



