THE FOX. 



IN the wilderness only the fittest survive. The 

 jackal and the wolf are gone ; but because the 

 fox is the wisest of his race, because he has proved 

 best able to adapt himself to changing conditions, 

 he has lived on as the lone and last survivor of his 

 tribe. 



There is only one species of fox in the British 

 Isles, the common Red or Royal Fox. The 

 beautiful silver, the black, and the cross fox furs, 

 so much prized as robes of fashion, are merely 

 northern colour-freaks of the red fox, just as the 

 Silvertip is a colour-freak of the common grizzly. 

 Thus a red vixen may produce cubs of different 

 varieties, one of them being worth as much as 

 five hundred pounds for its pelt, while the re- 

 mainder of the litter may be worth only a few 

 shillings apiece. (In North America there exists 

 also the Kit Fox, or the Swift, which is a distinct 

 species from the Red.) 



Similarly, the strong and wiry mountain-fox of 

 the north, dreaded by keepers and shepherds alike, 

 is a red fox whose wild and rugged surroundings 

 have changed his habits and his form, so that he 

 would seem quite a different creature from, say, 

 the foxes of Leicestershire and the New Forest. 



Black fox pelts are so much prized solely on 

 account of their rarity, for they are certainly not 

 more beautiful than the red pelts. See our 

 common fox in his autumnal coat, shaded with 

 gold and russet, and even touched with silver, and 

 you will think him the most beautifully clothed 

 of all living things ; and were he as rare as the 



W.A. d 



