[1(!6J CllOSSED BREEDS. 



Second Letter on the above Subject. 



"]\Ir. Editor, — In 1855 you were good enoxigli to describe in 'Bell's 

 Life ' some history of a viilpo-canine bitch in my possession at Peter- 

 borough Avhich had bred whelps, and as you are at this period of the 

 year ' for the fox and nothing but the fox,' perhaps you can spare a 

 niche in your ' fency columns ' for a subject that may not be consi- 

 dered out of season. The vulpo-canine vixen is now, like all the fox 

 genus, in full coat, and a beautiful-looking animal, higher on the leg than 

 our common foxes, with more frame and size, and looks like going 

 a slapping pace, and carries that unmistakable odour Avhich accom- 

 panies ' the beast of stinking flight.' She bred a litter of whelps in 

 the spring of tlie years 1855 and 1856 (got by a ' lion-tawny-'coloured 

 terrier dog), and goes ' on heat ' only at one regular period. Her produce 

 are endued more or less with the natural shyness and timidity cf 

 the vulpine species, and which it appears somewhat difficult to remove. 

 The formation of their heads is faultless — long, and punishing — in fact, 

 the appearance of these animals resembles terrier dogs, with the perfect 

 head and countenance, back, body, and feet of the fox. The vulpo- 

 canine bitch is now suckling four whelps (got by a good white terrier 

 dog), and as their colours are likewise good- -white ' with black and pied 

 ear-patches ' — it is likely to prove a better cross of its sort than the two 

 former litters of whelps which the bitch reared, they being all of foxy, 

 wild, dark-looking colours ; and, as the terrier dog which got them was 

 somewhat wicked and crafty in nature, I am now inclined to think that, 

 ' as like begets like,' he was not altogether a suitable partner for the 

 vulpo-canine bitch — an animal but one remove from the ' veritable fox 

 itself,' as wild, too, as the wildest fox which ever broke away in a state of 

 nature from any ' evergreen gorse covert,' with a pack of hounds in 

 pursuit, all eager for the fray. Yours, &c. 



Egbert Tomlin. 



" Diine Court, Isle of Tbauet, January, 1857." 



