THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOX 9 



The protective colouring of the fox, and the 

 advantage this must be to an animal which is both 

 hunter and hunted, have already been noticed. If 

 we examine a number of the skins of the fox, we 

 shall find that scarcely two are exactly alike. Protec- 

 tive colouring in animals is a most interesting topic, 

 but it leads to puzzles which we cannot solve. 

 Perhaps the will of the animal has something to do 

 with it, and I seem to trace a faint clue to the con- 

 nection between the protective colouring and the 

 mind in the intense desire of the fox to remain con- 

 cealed and unseen. This is one of the dominant 

 motives of the fox's life. That this is a possible 

 theory we infer from the fact that a blind animal 

 does not change colour. Put a dozen minnows into 

 an ordinary white wash-hand basin and they will in 

 a very short time be of a pale colour. If over one 

 no change passes we may be tolerably certain that it 

 is blind. There is probably some connection between 

 the animal's sense of incongruity with the surround- 

 ings and this change. 



Foxes are the smallest of the dog family. The 

 biggest fox is but a small animal, no larger on the 

 average than a wire-haired fox terrier. I have col- 

 lected as many instances as I could of the various 

 weights of full-grown foxes, and I can find none so 



