52 ZOOLOGY. 



Genus VULPES. 



VULPES VULGARIS PENNSYLVANICUS, (Bodd.) Cones. 



American Red F©s. 



Brant Fox, Penn., Hist. Quad., 235; Arct. Zool., 1784, 47. 



Benard de Virginie, Pal. de Beauv., Bull. Soc. PLrilom. 



Cams vulpes var. pennsylvanicus, Bodd., Elenehus Anim., 1784, 96 (from Pennant). 



Cards fulvus, Desm., Mamm., i, 1820, 203 (from Pal. de Beauv).— Fr. Cuv., Diet. Sci. 



Nat., viii, 508.— Harlan, Fn. Amer., 1825, 89.— Griffith, An. Kingd., 



v, 1827, 150.— Doughty's Cab. N. H., i, 1830, 25, pi. 3.— Godman, Am. 



Nat. Hist., i, 1831, 280. 

 Vulpes fulvus, Bicn., Fn. Bor.-Am., i, 1S29, 91.— FiscnER, Syu., 1829, 191.— DeKay, 



N. Y. Fn., i, 1842, 44, pi. 7, f. 1.— Aud. & Bach., Quad. N. A., ii, 1851, 



203, pi. 87.— Baird, Mamm. N. A., 1857, 123. 

 Canis (Vulpes) vulgaris v&v.fulvtis, Wagn., Suppl. Schreber, ii, 1841, 413. 

 lied Fur, Common Fox, ANGLIC E. 



Chars, of the ordinary variety (pennsylvanicus). — Pelage long, fine, 

 and lustrous ; brush large and full, the distance between the ends of the 

 outstretched hairs 6-7 inches. Ears haired both sides; feet so clothed 

 that the claws and balls are nearly hidden. Tail to end of hairs rather 

 more than half as long as the head and body. General color bright 

 brownish-red or tawny red, rather darker on the shoulders and flanks, 

 blackening on the back of the ears and outsides of the legs below, and on 

 the ends of the tail-hairs ; space around the black snout, edges of upper 

 jaw, chin, throat, breast, and narrow belly-line more or less purely white ; 

 tip of tail usually white. 



Coloration subject, as in many other animals, to melanism in varying 

 degree from the slightest darkening of normal shades to black ; one partic- 

 ular stage of incomplete melanism being strongly marked and frequent. 

 These melanotic conditions have their due interest as items of natural history, 

 and great commercial importance, but no classificatory significance what- 

 ever. A special state of semi-melanism is — 



The Cross-Fox (decussatus). — Muzzle, legs, and middle line of under 

 parts blackish, with two cross-bars running down the inside of the legs. A 

 more or less extended dark dorsal band crossed by another over the shoul- 

 ders. Tail largely obscured by the increased black ends of the hairs; the 

 white tip often wanting. Forehead and hack dark grayish, owing to griz- 

 zled appearance of the plumbeous-black routs of the hairs, with their pale 



