366 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



on the continent is a variety of the gray fox called the coast, 

 island, and short-tailed fox, and known to science as the Urocyon 

 littoralis. It is the smallest member of its genus, a full- 

 grown male not being larger than a house cat. It resembles 

 the gray or woodland fox in every characteristic except size, 

 but it would seem to have been formerly as large as that 

 species, and to have been reduced to its dwarfish proportions 

 through many generations of half-starved ancestors. It is 

 found only on the islands of San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and 

 Santa Rosa, off the coast of Southern California. It lives 

 almost entirely on insects, grasshoppers forming the largest 

 portion of its food; yet it sometimes manages to catch a sea- 

 bird, and to enjoy an unusual feast of meat. It also makes a 

 raid on the nests of gulls, cormorants, guillemots and kindred 

 birds, but they are generally too cautious to place their eggs 

 within its reach, so make their domiciles amid the most inac- 

 cessible crags. 



This fox is supposed to have been isolated from the main- 

 land by the advancing sea, which covered a large area of 

 country, and placed a strait sixteen miles wide between its 

 home and the region where pabulum was plentiful. Being 

 unable to find any bone-making, nourishing food, its remote 

 ancestors began to dwindle gradually in size until, in succes- 

 sive generations, the present limit was reached. Were these 

 insect-eating dwarfs transferred to the mainland, where food 

 is abundant, their posterity would probably regain the original 

 size in the course of years. 



They may now be seen loitering about all day long, turn- 

 ing over stones and plants in search of insects, and, when found, 

 devouring them with the greatest avidity. Several have been 

 dissected, but nothing was found in their stomachs except 

 grasshoppers and kindred insects. Their habits have been 

 even changed by isolation, for, instead of prowling about at 

 night and fleeing from man, they roam abroad at all hours, 

 and have no more fear of their human foe than they have of a 

 shrub. They will scarcely move out of his way in many 

 instances, and they may look up into his face with a gaze that 

 expresses curiosity more than fear. The reason for this sim- 



