VARIETY OF COLOUR IN FOXES 185 



with silver hairs, and those areas are usually 

 designated in the Fur Posts by the terms, " three- 

 quarter-neck," "half-neck," and "quarter-neck." 

 A three-quarter- neck Silver Fox is all black except 

 over the rump and hindquarters, which area is 

 lightly interspersed with silver-grey hairs ; a half- 

 neck Silver Fox is the same, except that the 

 silver hairs extend to the middle-back ; while a 

 quarter-neck has the whole black body inter- 

 spersed with silver hairs excepting the head and 

 neck, which are all black. 



The handsome Cross Fox has many variations 

 of colour, brought about by a greater or lesser 

 amount of greys and a corresponding variance of 

 the extent of red. However, a typical Cross 

 Fox has the entire back and hindquarters thick- 

 speckled stone-grey, and the forehead and sides 

 of head the same colour ; the rear of the hind- 

 quarters and the root of the tail, underneath, 

 show pale whitish buff ; the tail is black on the 

 upper side, excepting the white tip, and paler 

 buffish black below ; the under-jaw, throat, 

 breast, belly, and all limbs are black; the sides 

 behind the foreshoulders, and the neck behind 

 the ears, are reddish buff ; the back of the neck 

 is reddish-tinged grey with more black showing 

 than on the back ; the back of the ears is 

 velvet black ; the nose to the eyes is black with 

 a few silver hairs. 



Lastly, a typical Red Fox has a general body 

 colour of medium yellowish-red buff, with the 

 belly and legs and the back of the ears black. 

 But it must be borne in mind that the Red Fox 

 has degrees of variation from this colour leading 



