FOX. 101 



Regarding the Warwickshire specimen, Mr. Trevor-Battye 

 remarks : " I agree about the interest of this specimen, but it 

 raises a question. By this time the native blood must be pretty 

 well diluted, and I suspect that we should find, had we proper 

 means of enquiry, that our Foxes are now larger than they were, 

 say, thirty years ago. The Swedish Fox, imported of late years 

 into this country, is a decidedly larger animal than the native 

 English Fox larger even, I believe, and I have seen many 

 examples of both forms, than the 'Greyhound' Fox, as the 

 gillies call the inhabitant of the Scottish hills." 



Distribution. The ordinary variety of the Fox extends over 

 the whole of Northern and Central Europe, being replaced in 

 the south by the above-mentioned black-bellied race. In 

 Central Asia we meet with a third variety, known as the Yellow 

 Fox, and characterised by its general pale yellowish coloration, 

 and the thickness of the tail, although it still retains the black 

 ears and white tip to the tail of the English race. Nearly 

 allied to the last is the handsome Himalayan variety, commonly 

 termed the Mountain-Fox, which differs so remarkably in its 

 winter dress from the typical form as to have been long regarded 

 as a distinct species. In this variety the colour of the fur of 

 the back varies from chestnut to iron-grey, and the shoulders 

 are frequently ornamented by a dark transverse stripe, while 

 the throat and under-parts are more or less dusky. In its 

 black-backed ears and white-tipped tail it resembles, however, 

 the South European race. Yet another race, commonly known 

 as the Nile Fox, inhabits Egypt. 



In North America we have other Foxes, now regarded merely 

 as geographical races of the British species ; one of these being 

 the well-known Cross-Fox, taking its name from the presence 

 of a more or less well-defined dark shoulder-stripe. Lastly, 

 the beautiful and valuable Silver Fox of the same regions is 

 nothing more than a dark-coloured variety of the same widely- 

 spread and variable species. 



