120 BRITISH MAMMALS 



skin of the hind foot, there is a rudiment of the first toe in the 

 bones of the metatarsus. 



The dogs of the genus Canis might be divided into these 

 groups : the Fox, or Alopecoid division ; the Wolf, or Lupine 

 section, which in the main includes the races that have formed 

 the domestic dogs ; and the Cyonines, or East Asiatic wild dogs 

 of the sub-genus Cuon ; besides several aberrant forms in sections 

 by themselves. The Fox group, perhaps, is a little less specialised 

 than the other three divisions. In England it has been repre- 

 sented since the Pliocene period ; and perhaps in the Glacial 

 ages the Arctic fox (Canis lagopus] dwelt in these islands, and, 

 at the same time, penetrated far south into France. But the 

 remains of this animal in England are so scanty and doubtful 

 that it is hardly worth while including it in a description of the 

 British mammalian fauna. 



Canis vulpes. THE COMMON Fox 



The fox differs from the dogs of the Wolf group in the 

 absence of air cells in the forehead of the skull, as well as in the 

 shape of the hinder portion of the bone of the eye socket, 

 the upper surface of which is concave instead of convex. In 

 general it is more slender in the build of its body and has shorter 

 limbs. The tail in the Common Fox is nearly half the length 

 of the head and body. The length of the head and body in 

 an average dog fox is about 3 ft., and the tail about i ft. 3 in. 

 Specimens of English foxes have measured as much as 

 3 ft. 10 in. from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail. 

 The ears are large, and the pupil of the eye, instead of con- 

 tracting under a strong light into a round spot, as in the dog 

 or the wolf, forms in the fox a slit or ellipse. The number of 

 teats also is different, being six, as against eight or ten in the 

 wolves and dogs. The muzzle is brought to a sharp point in the 

 nose, and this pointed aspect is added to by a considerable pro- 

 jection of the nose and upper lip beyond the lower jaw. The 

 vibrissas, or u whiskers," are very abundant. 



Foxes, also, are not only more nocturnal in their active life, 



