AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



25 



RED FOX. 

 C^NIS (VULPES) FULVUS. 



Renard de Pirginie. Palisot de Beatjvois. £til. soc. 

 Phil. — Large Bed Fox of the Plains. Lewis & 

 Clark. — Red Fox. Sabine, tdpp. to Franklin^ s Jour- 

 ney, 656. GoDMAN, vol. i. 276. — American Fox. 

 Richardson, Faun. am. bor. 91. — Canis fulvus, 

 Desm. Mamm. 203. Icon F. Cuv. Mam. Lithog. — 

 J. Doughtt's Collection. 



The various species of the Fox have been classed by- 

 most naturalists in the genus Canis Lin. together with the 

 wolf and jackal. From these animals, however, they differ 

 in many important particulars. In the dogs, the pupil of the 

 eye is circular and diurnal; whilst in the Fox, it is linear 

 and nocturnal. The tail is also more bushy, the nose more 

 pointed, and the scent stronger than in the former. There 

 is likewise a very marked dissimilarity in many of their 

 habits and manners; thus the Fox burrows, which the dog 

 does not, the voice of the former is rather a yelp than a 

 bark, &c. From these considerations, some naturalists 

 have wholly separated them from Canis under the title of 

 Viilpes, and others, though retaining them in that genus, 

 make them a subdivision or subgenus. 



The Fox belongs to the Digitigrada, or second tribe of 

 the Carnivora, including such animals as support them- 

 selves in walking, on the extremities of the toes. The 

 digitigrade animals are subdivided, 1st. into such as have 

 one tubercular or bruising grinder in the upper jaw; are 

 destitute of a coecum, and whose body is very little larger 

 than their head. This subdivision includes the genus 

 Mustela of Linne, which has been split into several well 

 marked genera; by more modern naturalists, as Mustela, L. 

 Putorius, Cuv. Mephitis, Cuv. Lutra, Storr. 2d. Such 

 as have two flat tubercular teeth in the upper jaw, and are 

 furnished with a small coecum; these are, Canis, Lin. 

 Vulpes, Gesner. Viverra, Cuv. Genetta, Cuv. Paradox- 

 urns, Cuv. Herpestes, Illig. Suricata, Desm. Crossar- 

 chus, F. Cuv. 3d. Those which have no tubercular tooth in 

 the lower jaw, which includes Felis, Lin. Hymna, Storr. 



Most of the species of the Fox have the same cunning and 

 sagacity, the same eagerness after prey, and commit the 

 same ravages among game, birds, poultry, and the lesser 

 quadrupeds. They are exceedingly fond of honey, and 

 will attack hives and the nests of the wild bee, for the 

 sake of the spoil; in these exploits they frequently meet 

 with so rough a reception, as to force them to retire, that 

 they may roll on the ground and thus crush their nume- 

 rous and vindictive assailants; but the moment they have 

 effected this, they return to the charge and are generally 

 G 



successful. Foxes will also eat any sort of insect, fruit, 

 &c. and are very destructive in vineyards. This latter 

 propensity was observed at a very early period. " Take 

 us the Foxes, the little Foxes that spoil the vines, for our 

 vines have tender grapes."* 



But they do not limit themselves to the quantity of food 

 necessary to appease the cravings of their appetite at the 

 moment. Instinct appears to warn them, that although 

 they may then be revelling in plenty, that future wants 

 must also be provided against. Hence, when they invade 

 a poultry yard, they kill all they can, and successively 

 carry off every piece, concealing them in the neighbour- 

 hood for a supply in time of need. Captain Lyon, in 

 speaking of this trait of character in the arctic Fox, ob- 

 serves, " Their first impulse on receiving food, is to hide 

 it as soon as possible, even though suffering from hunger, 

 and having no companion of whose honesty they are doubt- 

 ful. In this case snow is of great assistance, as being 

 easily piled over their stores, and then forcibly pressed 

 down by the nose. I frequently observed my dog-fox, 

 when no snow was attainable, gather his chain into his 

 mouth, and in that manner carefully coil it so as to hide 

 the meat. On moving away, satisfied with his operations, 

 he of course, had drawn it after him again, and sometimes 

 with great patience repeated his labors four or five times, 

 until in a passion, he has been constrained to eat his food, 

 without its having been rendered luscious by previous con- 

 cealment, "t 



Foxes are very fond of basking in the sun; in fact their 

 general time of rest is in the day time, during which pe- 

 riod they appear listless and inactive, without they are 

 excited by fear or some other stimulus. They sleep in a 

 round form like the dog, and also resemble that animal in 

 the ease with which they are awakened, it being almost 

 impossible to come on them unawares, for even when they 

 are in an apparently sound sleep, the slightest noise, made 

 near them, will arouse them. The moment niglit sets in, 

 all their faculties are awakened; they then begin their 

 gambols and depredations, continuing in rapid and almost 

 unceasing motion till day break. Most, if not all, the spe- 

 cies live in burrows; these are generally composed of 

 several chambers, and are provided with more than one 

 entrance, by which they may make their escape in cases of 

 extremity. One of the great characteristics of the Fox, is 

 their extreme prudence and almost matchless cunning, 

 which are exemplified not only in their stratagems to ob- 

 tain prej^, but also in their numerous wiles in order to 

 avoid their pursuers. Dr. Richardson states, that the 

 arctic Fox appears to have the power of decoying other 



■ Solomon's Song, ii. 15. 



f Lyon's Private Journal. 



