FOXES 



tame wolf or jackal will jump round liis master to be 

 caressed, wagging his tail and rolling on the ground, 

 licking his owner's hand and foot, clearly shows that either 

 of those animals is more closely allied to the dog than to 

 the fox, which never, even when most tame, exhibits any 

 of these signs. 



The fox is not disposed to that kind of familiarity with 

 our species, and is totally unsuited to be made or become 

 a domestic animal, while, on the contrary, the dog is the 

 most domestic animal in the world, found everywhere 

 associated with man, and lending his skill, ingenuity, 

 strength, and courage to his master. 



There can be no doubt therefore that, whatever may 

 have been the origin of the domestic dogs of endless 

 variety, the fox must be regarded as a very, very distant 

 relation, little more, in fact, than a slight acquaintance or 

 an ally. 



One thing is certain that foxes do not breed in confine- 

 ment, except in rare instances ; the silver fox of North 

 America is the only species recorded to have bred in the 

 Zoological Gardens of London, and Mr. Darwin remarks, 

 in his Animals and Plants under Domestication, that he 

 never heard of the European fox breeding in captivity. 



Apart from any other consideration, a fox may be dis- 

 tinguished from a dog, without being seen or touched, by 

 its smell, which on entering a house or a room in which 

 one is kept is at once discernible ; no one can produce a 

 dog that has half the perfume of Reynard, and this per- 

 fume the fox-dog would doubtless possess were its sire a 

 dog-fox or its dam a vixen. 



A few further remarks may now be added respecting 

 the variableness in the habits of the true fox as compared 

 with the dog, the wolf, and the jackal. The latter animals 

 are respectively found uniting in packs, and the meeting 



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