AMERICAN CROSS FOX. 53 



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as it could always be started in the same vicinity. We obtained a pair 

 of fine fox-hounds, and gave chase. The dogs were young, and proved 

 no match for the fox, which generally took a straight direction through 

 several cleared fields, for five or six miles, after which it began winding 

 and twisting among the hills, where the hounds on t^vo occasions lost the 

 scent and returned home. 



On a third hunt, we took our stand near the corner of an old field, at a 

 spot we had twice observed it to pass. It came at last, s^^dnging its brush 

 from side to side, and running with great rapidity, three-quarters of a mile 

 ahead of the dogs, which were yet out of hearing. — A good aim removed 

 the mysterious charm — We killed it with squirrel-shot, without the aid of 

 a silver bullet. It was nearly jet-black, with the tip of the tail white. 

 This fox was the female which had produced the joung of the previous 

 spring that we have just spoken of ; and as some of them, as we have al- 

 already said, were Cross Foxes and others Red Foxes, this has settled the 

 question in our minds, that both the Cross Fox and the Black Fox are 

 mere varieties of the Red. 



J. W. Audubon brought the specimen he obtained at Niagara, alive to 

 New York, where it was kept for six or seven weeks. It fed on meat of 

 various kinds : it was easily exasperated, having been much teased on 

 its way from the Falls. It usually laid down in the box in which it was 

 confined, with its head toward the front, and its bright eyes constantly 

 looking upward, and forward, at all intruders. Sometimes, during the 

 night, it would bark like a dog, and frequently, during the day, its move- 

 ments corresponded with those of the latter animal. It could not bear the 

 sun-light shining into its prison, and continued shy and snappish to the 

 last. 



The fur of the Cross Fox was formerly in great demand ; a single skin- 

 sometimes selling for twenty-five dollars ; at present, however, it is said 

 not to be worth more than about three times the price of that of the Red 

 Fox. 



GEOGR.\PHIC.\I. BISTEIBCTION. 



This variety seems to originate only in cold climates ; hence we have 

 not heard of it in the southern parts of the States of Ne^v York and Penn- 

 sylvania, nor farther to the South. In the northern portions of the State 

 of New York, in New Hampshire, Maine, and in Canada, it is occa- 

 sionally met with, in locations where the Red Fox is common. It 

 also exists in Nova Scotia and Labrador. There is a Cross Fox on the 

 Rocky Mountains, but we are not yet satisfied that it will eventually 

 prove to be this variety. 



