FOX. Class L 



months ; it breeds only once in a year (except 

 some accident befals its first litter) and brings 

 forth, commonly in April, four or five young, 

 which like puppies, are born blind ; it con- 

 tinues bearing ten or eleven years. There is 

 a commonly received opinion, that this animal 

 will produce with the dog kind ; which may be 

 well founded ; since it has been proved that the 

 congenerous wolf will.*' Mr. Brook, animal- 

 merchant in Holborn, turned a wolf to a Pome- 

 ranian bitch then in heat : the congress was im- 

 mediate, with the circumstances usual with the 

 canine species. The bitch brought ten whelps, 

 one of which I afterwards saw at the Duke of 

 Gordon'' s in Scotland. It bore a great resem- 

 blance to the male parent, and had much of its 

 nature : being slipped at a weak deer, it in- 

 stantly caught at the animal's throat and killed 



* M. de Buffon asserts the contrary, and gives the following 

 account of the experiment he had made. J' en jfis garder trois 

 pendant deux ans, une femelle isf deux males : on tenia inutile- 

 onent de les /aires accoupler avec des chiennes; guoiqu'ils Ji' eussent 

 jamais vu de femelle de Icur espece, et qiiils parussent pressh du 

 liesoin de joitir, ils ne 'purent sy determiner , ils rej-userent toutes 

 les chiennes, mais des guon leur present a leur femelle legitime, 

 ils la couvrirenf, quoiqii' enchaines , et elle produisit quatre petits. 

 Hist. Natiirelle, vll. 81. The same experiments were tried with 

 a bitch and a male fox, and with a dog and a female wolf, and 

 as ilf . de Buffon says with the same ill success. Vol. v. 210^ 

 212. but the fact just cited, proves the possibility past contest. 



