28 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



Pennant* under the head of European Fox, observes, 

 " It inhabits the northern parts of North America. This 

 species gradually decreases to the southward in numbers 

 and size; none are found lower than Pennsylvania. They 

 are supposed not to have been originally natives of that 

 country. The Indians believe they came from the north 

 of Europe, in an excessive hard winter, wlien the sea was 

 frozen. The truth seems to be, that they were driven in 

 some severe season from the north of their own country, 

 and have continued there ever since. The variety of 

 British Fox with a black tip to the tail, seems unknown in 

 America." 



Kalm says, " The red Foxes are very scarce here (New 

 York); they are entirely the same with the European 

 sort. Mr. Bartram and several others assured me, that, 

 according to the unanimous testimony of the Indians, this 

 kind of Fox never was seen in the country before the Eu- 

 ropeans settled in it. But of the manner of their coming 

 over, I have two accounts. Mr. Bartram, and several 

 other people, were told by the Indians, that these Foxes 

 came into America soon after the arrival of the Europeans, 

 after an extraordinary cold winter, when all the sea to the 

 northward was frozen. But Mr. Evans and some others, 

 assured me that the following account was still known by 

 the people. A gentleman in New England, who had 

 much inclination for hunting, brought over a great number 

 of Foxes from Europe, and let them loose in his terri- 

 tories, that he might be able to indulge his passion for 

 hunting. This, it is said, happened at the very beginning 

 of New England's being peopled with European inhabi- 

 tants. These Foxes were believed to have so multiplied, 

 that all the red Foxes in the country were their off- 

 spring, "t It is due to Kalm to state, that he considers 

 neither of these accounts as satisfactory. Custis states, 

 " The Foxes hunted fifty years ago were gray Foxes, with 

 one exception, this was a famous black Fox;" and in a 

 note says, " The red Fox is supposed to have been im- 

 ported from England to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, 

 by a Mr. Smith, and to have emigrated across the ice to 

 Virginia, in the hard winter of 1779-80, when the Chesa- 

 peake was frozen over. "J 



A correspondent in the American Sporting Magazine 

 says, " I think it probable that they were brought over 

 and turned out at other places, and at very early periods. 

 In 1789, when quite a boy, I was at the death of the first 

 red Fox killed in Perry county, Pennsylvania. Not a 

 person present, or any one who saw it for some days, had 

 ever seen or heard of an animal of the kind. At last it was 



* Arctic Zoology. 



+ Travels in North America. 



t Recollections of Washington, (extract from Sporting Mag.) 



shown to a Mr. Lenarton, an old Jersey man, who pro- 

 nounced it an English Fox. He said the red Fox was 

 imported into New York from England, by one of the 

 first English governors, who was said to be a great sports- 

 man, and turned out on Long Island, where they remained 

 for many years, but at last made their way on tlie ice to the 

 main land and spread over the country. The red Fox and 

 Canada hare are migrating south and west."* 



In another letter from a correspondent in the same work 

 the writer observes, "with us (Virginia) he is supposed 

 to have been brought from the continent — Germany, I 

 think — and not from the island of Great Britain. I re- 

 member well, when the first red Fox was seen in my native 

 part of Virginia (in Goochland, on James' River,) and the 

 sensation it created among sportsmen. This was about 

 fifteen years ago. "t 



Both the above writers also state, that the gray Fox ( V. 

 Virginianus) disappears on the appearance of the red. 

 This, however, is not the case, as in many parts they are 

 equally numerous. 



Such, as far as we liave been able to investigate, are the 

 proofs, that the red Fox is identical with the common Fox 

 of Europe, being in fact descended from it. On the other 

 hand many writers, as F. Cuvicr, Desmarest, and Harlan, 

 admit and describe the red Fox as a distinct species, but at 

 the same time state that the European Fox is also an inhabi- 

 tant of North America. Dr. Richardson says, the latter 

 is probably a native of New Caledonia, and further ob- 

 serves, " Several of the voyagers who have visited the At- 

 lantic coast of North America, mention two kinds of red 

 Fox skins in possession of the natives; the one having a 

 fine, long, silvery fur, of a reddish yellow colour, (C 

 fulvus?) the other of a smaller size, having shorter and 

 coarser fur and less lively tints of colour (C. vulpes?) I 

 think it very probable that an investigation into the charac- 

 ters of the American Foxes, will show that the reddish 

 Fox of the Atlantic States is a variety^ the C. cinereus, 

 (Q. docs Dr. Richardson mean the gray Fox by the C. 

 cinereus?) which has been mistaken for the European 

 Fox."! 



From tlie above contradictory and unsatisfactory ac- 

 counts, we have been led to believe that there is but one 

 species of red Fox in the United States, and the country 

 north of them; this opinion is strengthened by much col- 

 lateral evidence. Thus, Dr. Richardson expressly states, 

 " It (the common Fox) does not exist in the countries 

 north of Canada, lying to the eastward of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and consequently did not come under our 



* American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, i. 74. 



t Ibid. i. 197. 



t Richardson, Faun. am. bor. 97. 



