CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 



245 



Rs fur is among the most valuable, being prized in all civilized countries, and especially in Russia 

 and China ; a single skin will often sell for fifty or seventy-five dollars. This species displays tie- 

 o-eneral characteristics of the common fox. 



The Jackal Fox, V. Utah, is larger than the common fox, the fur very long and fine, color 

 grayish brown, and the tail irregularly banded with dark brown and dull white. The hues, 

 however, vary in different specimens. This animal was first noticed by Lewis and Clarke; it is 

 found in the Rocky Mountains, in Utah, in Oregon, and the northern regions traversed by the 

 British fur-traders, — it being nowhere common. The aspect and appearance of this animal are 

 peculiar, and probably it will prove to be a distinct species. 



The Arctic Fox, or Isatis, V. lagojous, is found in both hemispheres, within the Arctic 

 circle, and is generally white or gray. One variety, called Sooty Fox, or Blue Fox, and erroneously 

 supposed to be a distinct species, has been denominated V. fuliginosus. These creatures are grega- 

 rious, and in some sandy places their burrows are so numerous as to be called villages. They ha\ e 

 not the rank smell of other foxes, and are exceedingly clean in their habits, never soiling their 

 dwellings. They have not the cunning and caution of the red fox, and are easily taken in traps. 

 Their fur is little valued, but their flesh is much esteemed They are numerous from Hudson's 

 Bay to Behring's Straits. The young ones migrate southward late in the autumn, but retire 

 early in the spring to their haunts along the borders of the Arctic Sea. The V. Azarce, V. Magi l- 

 lanicus, and V. Corsac, are South American varieties or species, very little known. 



\ 



THE FEXXEC. 



THE OTOCrOX. 



Genus FENNEC : Fennec. — Of this we know but a single species, the Canls Cerda, or Fox 

 7 exxec, which hves along the borders of the Barbary States, in the Desert of Sahara, and m 

 Central Africa. R is about seven inches long ; has long ears, and an exquisite sense of hearing, 

 it is of a pale dove-color, and feeds on the small game of the desert. 



Genus OTOCYON : Otocyon.— Of this there is but one species, the Otocyon megalofis, found in 

 be country of the Hottentots: it seems to combine something of the fox and the civet. Its 

 V is thick, the tail rather short but bushy, the legs long, the color grayish brown varied with 

 (iwn. The leno-th Is fifteen inches. Rs habits are little known. 



