96 THE COMMON FOX. 



- 

 little below the elbows and heels, are also more or less black, as 



is the hinder surface of each ear, except at the base. Great individual 

 variation, however, exists, the pelage being sometimes yellowish rather 

 than reddish, or largely washed with either black or white. The 

 Honourable R. C. Trollope has been so kind as to send us word that a 

 pure white English Fox was killed near Taunton in 1886. The speci- 

 men has been stuffed, and is in the possession of C. J. Erdaile, Esq., 

 of Cotheleston House, Taunton, on whose property it was killed. 



The length of the head and body may be from about twenty-seven to 

 forty-six inches, and that of the tail from twelve to fifteen inches. 



Our figure (Plate XXI.) is drawn from a living specimen of an 

 English Fox. 



We have already referred to the Italian variety described by Bonaparte 

 as Canis melanog aster, but a considerable number of other forms have 

 been described as distinct species, which forms we cannot but regard 

 as mere varieties of C. vulpes. No less than four types of such named 

 forms exist in the British Museum as well as representatives of three 

 other reputed species, which also seem to us to be mere varieties. 



One of these is the so-called (7. niloticus, of which two specimens 

 from Egypt and three from Algiers and Syria are in our National 

 Collection. Our judgment as to the non-distinctness of this form from 

 C. vulpes is confirmed by the figures of C. niloticus given by Riippell 

 and Ehrenberg, which differ strikingly from each other, and, indeed, 

 Riippell admits that a great likeness exists between the Fox of the 

 Nile and that of Europe. The representation of a young female Fox 

 from Algiers given by F. Cuvier, in the second volume of his ' Histoire 

 Naturelle des Mammiferes/ further confirms our judgment, and indeed 

 the author only represents it as being a doubtfully distinct kind. 



The type of the variety distinguished as C. montanus is, with seven 

 other specimens, preserved in the British Museum. As to it, the 

 founder of the species, Mr. Pearson, himself says * that it seems to ,[ 



be intermediate between C. vulpes and C. decussatus, " which, indeed, \ 



may, after all, be probably varieties of the same species." Jerdon also 



Loc. cit. p. 314. 



j 



