CANID^E 553 



and earth for the purpose of facilitating the operation of digging 

 out the cubs. The Fox also occurs in woods, and even in the open 

 country without burrows, lying in its " cover " by day and stealing 

 forth at night in search of its prey. Kemains of the Common 

 Fox occur not unfrequently in the Pleistocene deposits of Europe. 

 The Indian C. bengalensis is a very much smaller and well-marked 

 species. 



The tail of the above forms is clothed with soft fur and long 

 hair, uniformly mixed ; from them Baird distinguishes, under the 

 name of Urocyon, other species which have a concealed erect mane 

 of stiff hairs along the upper line of the tail. These have also a 

 shorter muzzle and a wide space between the temporal crests ; they 

 are C. virginianus and C. littoralis, both from North America. The 

 Arctic Fox (C. lagopus, genus Leucocyon, Gray) has the tail very full 

 and bushy and the soles of the feet densely furred below. Its 

 colour changes according to season from bluish-gray to pure white. 



Certain small elegant African Foxes (C. zerda, famelicus, and 

 chama), with very large ears and corresponding large auditory 

 bullse, have been separated under the name of Fennecus, and are 

 commonly known as Fennecs. 



The earliest undoubted occurrence of the genus Canis seems to 

 be in the Upper Miocene of Switzerland, where it is represented 

 by the Fox-like C. ceningensis. In the Upper Pliocene of France 

 C. megamastoides is said to be allied to the Foxes and Jackals, but 

 with some signs of affinity to the extinct Cynodictis. In the Pliocene 

 Siwaliks of India there occurs (7. cwvipalatus, of the size of a small 

 Fox, which appears to have certain resemblances to Otocyon. 



Lycaon. 1 This genus resembles in most of its characters the 

 Dogs of the Lupine series, but the teeth are rather more massive 

 and rounded, the skull is shorter and broader, and there are but 

 four toes on each limb, as in Hycena. The one species, L. pictus, the 

 Cape Hunting Dog (Fig. 253) from South and East Africa, is very 

 distinct externally from all the other Canidce. It is nearly as large 

 as a Mastiff, with large, broadly ovate erect ears, and singularly 

 coloured, being not only variable in different individuals, but un- 

 symmetrically marked with large spots of white, yellow, and black. 

 It presents some curious superficial resemblances to Hycena crocuta, 

 perhaps a case of mimetic analogy. It hunts its prey in large 

 packs. A lower jaw from a cave-deposit in Glamorganshire, which 

 agrees with that of the existing form in the presence of an anterior 

 cusp to the last lower premolar, has been made the type of a dis- 

 tinct species (L. anglicus). 



Icticyon. 2 The Bush-Dog (/. venaticus), from Guiana and Brazil, 

 is a species about the size of a Fox, with close hair, and short legs 



1 Brookes, Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. v. p. 151 (1827). 



2 Lund, K. Danks. Vid. Selsk. Afhand. vol. xi. p. 62 (1845). 



