CANIDAE 553 
and earth for the purpose of facilitating the operation of digging 
out the cubs. The Fox also occurs in woods, and even in the open 
country without burrows, lying in its “cover” by day and stealing 
forth at night in search of its prey. Remains of the Common 
Fox occur not unfrequently in the Pleistocene deposits of Europe. 
The Indian C. bengalensis is a very much smaller and well-marked 
species. ' 
The tail of the above forms is clothed with soft fur and long 
hair, uniformly mixed; from them Baird distinguishes, under the 
name of Urocyon, other species which have a concealed erect mane 
of stiff hairs along the upper line of the tail. These have also a 
shorter muzzle and a wide space between the temporal crests ; they 
are C. virginianus and C-. littoralis, both from North America. The 
Arctic Fox (C. lagopus, genus Leucocyon, Gray) has the tail very full 
and bushy and the soles of the feet densely furred below. Its 
colour changes according to season from bluish-gray to pure white. 
Certain small elegant African Foxes (C. zerda, famelicus, and 
chama), with very large ears and corresponding large auditory 
bulle, have been separated under the name of Mennecus, and are 
commonly known as Fennecs. 
The earliest undoubted occurrence of the genus Canis seems to 
be in the Upper Miocene of Switzerland, where it is represented 
by the Fox-like C. eningensis. In the Upper Pliocene of France 
C. megamastoides is said to be allied to the Foxes and Jackals, but 
with some signs of affinity to the extinct Cynodictis. In the Pliocene 
Siwaliks of India there occurs C’ curvipalatus, of the size of a small 
Fox, which appears to have certain resemblances to Otocyon. 
Lycaon1—This genus resembles in most of its characters the 
Dogs of the Lupine series, but the teeth are rather more massive 
and rounded, the skull is shorter and broader, and there are but 
four toes on each limb, as in Hywna. The one species, L. pictus, the 
Cape Hunting Dog (Fig. 253) from South and East Africa, is very 
distinct externally from all the other Canide. It is nearly as large 
as a Mastiff, with large, broadly ovate erect ears, and singularly 
coloured, being not only variable in different individuals, but un- 
symmetrically marked with large spots of white, yellow, and black. 
It presents some curious superficial resemblances to Hyena crocuta, 
perhaps a case of mimetic analogy. It hunts its prey in large 
packs. <A lower jaw from a cave-deposit in Glamorganshire, which 
‘agrees with that of the existing form in the presence of an anterior 
cusp to the last lower premolar, has been made the type of a dis- 
tinct species (L. anglicus). 
Icticyon.2—The Bush-Dog (JZ. venaticus), from Guiana and Brazil, 
is a species about the size of a Fox, with close hair, and short legs 
1 Brookes, Grifith’s Animal Kingdom, vol. v. p. 151 (1827). 
2 Lund, XK. Danks. Vid. Selsk. Afhand. vol. xi. p. 62 (1845). 
