AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
GRAY FOX. 
CANIS CINEREO-ARGENTATUS. 
[Plate XIII. Vol. 2.] 
Renard Gris: Briss. quad. p. 41.—A@gourachay: AZARA, 
quad due Paraguay, i. p. 317. Canis Cenereo ar- 
gentatus. Gitet. Sasinz, Zool. app. p. 657. Gov- 
MAN, vol. 1. p. 280.—Fulvous-necked Fox. SHaw, 
Zool. Miscel. : 
Tuer Gray Fox is an inhabitant of all parts of the 
United States, from Louisiana to Canada, and as far west 
asthe Rocky Mountains—its chief abode, however, is about 
human habitations, where it is more destructive than the other 
species. They are more numcrous in the Southern States, 
more particularly Virginia, and form the chief source of 
amusement to the sportsmen of that state. 
The Gray differs from the Red Fox in many particulars, 
although some writers make it only a variety of the latter, 
and indeed confound the whole race together, attributing 
the difference only to changes of climate and circum- 
stances. The Gray Fox is different in colour and in many of 
its habits, and possesses more cunning and less disposition 
to wander than the Red Fox. The latter is more active and 
savage in its disposition, and although exceedingly car- 
nivorous, is not so destructive to domestic animals as the 
Gray Fox, and emits an odour extremely offensive, which 
does not belong to the latter. 
The Fox appears to be spread over the whole earth, and 
is known by most of the inhabitants of every country, 
and in every country differs in colour, varying as Gray, 
Brown, Red, Blue, Black, Silver, and in the severe climes 
of the arctic regions, purely white. He is one of those ani- 
mals of which we have the earliest notice in sacred 
writ; his cunning is proverbial, and his wiles have earned 
for him a reputation, which would imply more than mere 
instinct. A writer remarks, that ‘‘in Japan, where the 
Fox is very common, the natives believe him to be ani- 
mated with the devil; and their histories and sacred 
writings are filled with strange accounts respecting him.”’ 
It is not, however, necessary to have recourse to heathen- 
ish traditions respecting the artfulness of this common 
enemy; we have him at our very doors, and his frequent 
depredations are convincing enough, that he possesses 
more than ordinary share of sagacity and mischief. He 
indeed appears to dwell in enmity with all animals, and 
unhesitatingly makes war against them, who, in return, 
hold him as an outlaw, and show no mercy where mercy 
is not to be found. Man pursues him with untiring per- 
Oo 
145 
severance unto death; the dog, his most formidable foe, 
hunts him with savage acrimony, and yelling without in- 
termission, the death-notes of revenge. The wolf is as 
destructive, buta more necessitousenemy thanthedog. The 
eagle, the crow, the jay,and many smaller birds, attend him 
as their mortal enemy, with signals of hatred and revenge. 
He appears to be an isolated being, and did he not pos- 
sess that energy and cunning which nature has so bounti- 
fully given him, his race would have long since been anni- 
hilated. 
The Fox is not only very voracious, but also most 
unmerciful in his destructive habits, and there is scarcely 
a living creature that he encounters, and isable to master, 
but he will destroy. No domestic fowl can escape his 
pursuit; young rabbits are his chief delight; he will draw 
the old ones from their seats, and pheasants and par- 
tridges from their nests, and devour them; geese, ducks, 
and all species of winged game, fall beneath his voracity; 
and when such food fails him, he will destroy rats, mice, 
snakes, frogs, lizzards, and insects: he is an expert fisher, 
and where these abound, he never fails to get a plen-— 
tiful supply of food. 
Of all animals, none seem so well adapted for the sport- 
ing world as the Fox, and, as the subject of our present 
notice possesses a larger share of cunning than the other 
species, he seems to be pursued by hunters in preference. 
The very craftiness of his nature fits him well for the 
ingenious and persecuting spirit of man. 
The Fox prepares a den or burrow under ground, mostly 
beside a bank, or hill, to which he retreats in case of dan- 
ger or necessity, but is very fond of reposing above 
ground, and basking in the sun. It is said they continue 
to grow for eighteen months, and will live in freedom 
fourteen or fifteen years, but pine away and die in a much 
shorter period if in a state of confinement. The follow- 
ing description of the Gray Fox, is from Godman’s Natu- 
ral History. ‘‘The length of the head and body is about 
twenty-four, and of the tail fifteen inches. The general 
colour of the animal is grizzly, becoming gradually darker 
from the fore shoulders, to the posterior parts of the 
back, produced by the intermixture of fulvous hairs 
with those constituting the mass of the pelage, which 
are thus coloured; near the body the hair is rather plum- 
beous, then yellowish, then white, and then uniformly 
tipped with lustrous black. The front, from the top of 
the head to the edge of the orbits is gray, while the rest 
of the face, from the internal angle of the eye to within 
half an inch of the extremity of the snout, is blackish; at 
the extremity on each side of the granalated black tip 
of the nose it isof a yellowish white. A fine line of black 
tipped hairs extendsupwardsand outwards, from halfan inch 
