THE FOX. 



PLATE XXV. 



Class Mammalia. Order III Carnaria, or butchering ani- 

 mals Family III Carnivora, flesh eaters. Tribe II 

 Digitigrada, walking on the toes. Genus Canis Yulpes. 

 THE Fox very exactly resembles the wolf (see p. 37) and the 

 dog internally ; and although he differs greatly from both in 

 size and carriage, yet when we come to examine his shapes 

 minutely, there will appear to be very little difference in the 

 description. Were, for instance, a painter to draw from a 

 natural historian's exactest description the figure of a dog, a 

 wolf, and a Yox, without having ever seen either, he would be 

 very apt to confound all these animals together ; or rather he 

 would be unable to catch those peculiar outlines that no des- 

 scription can supply. Words will never give any person an 

 exact idea of forms any way irregular ; for although they be 

 extremely just and precise, yet the numberless discriminations 

 to be attended to will confound each other, and we shall no 

 more conceive the precise form, than we should be able to tell 

 when one pebble more was added or taken away from a 

 thousand. To conceive, therefore, how the fox differs in form 

 from the wolf or the dog, it is necessary to see all three, or at 

 least to supply the defects of description by examining the 

 difference in a print. 



The fox is of a slenderer make than the wolf, and not neat 

 so large ; for as the former is above three feet and a half long, 

 so the other is not above two feet three inches. The tail of 

 the fox also is longer in proportion and more bushy ; its nose 

 is smaller and approaching more nearly to that of the gray- 

 hound, and its hair softer. On the other hand, it differs from 

 the dog in having its eyes obliquely situated, like those of the 

 wolf; its ears are directed also in the same manner as those 

 of the wolf, and its head is equally large in proportion to its 

 Vol. ii. 14. 



