194 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



ever, at the present time their numbers must be few indeed. 

 Still later, Scheffer (1938) notes that the U. S. Forest Service 

 estimates that in the national-forest areas of the State of 

 Washington, the wolverene population is about 20. 



Family CANIDAE: Wolves, Dogs, Foxes 

 THE KIT FOXES 



These small foxes are about half the size of a red fox and 

 live in the open plains country or sandy deserts of western 

 North America. The upper side of head and body is some 

 shade of buff overlain with gray; the sides of neck, shoulders, 

 and body are clear buff, the ears and legs usually brighter buff, 

 the tail gray with black-tipped hairs, which terminally con- 

 centrate to form a black tip. Two species are found, the more 

 eastern, ranging over the Great Plains, Vulpes velox, and the 

 more western, centering in the Great Basin and southern 

 California, V. macrotis. The former is a slightly larger animal 

 with shorter ears than the latter, and comprises two races; the 

 latter is more an animal of sandy desert regions and is at 

 present divided into eight races. 



SWIFT; KIT Fox 



VULPES VELOX VELOX (Say) 



Cam's velox Say, Long's Exped. to Rocky Mts., vol. 1, p. 487, 1823 (South Platte River 



(? Logan County), Colorado). 

 SYNONYM: Canis microtus Reichenbach, Regnum animale . . . , vol. 1, pt. 1, p. 10, 



1836, as quoted by Wiegmann in Wiegmann's Archiv fUr Naturg., Jahrg. 3, Bd. 



2, p. 162, 1837. 

 FIGS.: Audubon and Bachman, 1851, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, 



vol. 2, pi. 13. 



NORTHERN KIT Fox 

 VULPES VELOX HEBES Merriam 



Vulpes velox hebes Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 15, p. 73, Mar. 22, 1902 

 (Calgary, Alberta, Canada). 



The range of the typical race is from the Staked Plains of 

 northwestern Texas northward over the Great Plains to prob- 

 ably South Dakota. The northern race, V. v. hebes, is larger 

 and slightly grayer, "dark patches on sides of nose darker, 

 skull larger and heavier; palate much longer; under jaw longer, 

 heavier, more bellied under sectorial tooth" (Merriam). 



