THE FOX 83 



skins formerly sold for twenty-five dollars, though 

 I believe they now bring only about five dollars. 



The black or silver-gray fox is the rarest of all, 

 and its skin the most valuable. The Indians used 

 to estimate it equal to forty beaver skins. The 

 great fur companies seldom collect in a single season 

 more than four or five skins at any one post. Most 

 of those of the American Fur Company come from 

 the head-waters of the Mississippi. One of the 

 younger Audubons shot one in northern New York. 

 The fox had been seen and fired at many times by 

 the hunters of the neighborhood, and had come to 

 have the reputation of leading a charmed life, and 

 of being invulnerable to anything but a silver bul- 

 let. But Audubon brought her down (for it was 

 a female) on the second trial. She had a litter of 

 young in the vicinity, which he also dug out, and 

 found the nest to hold three black and four red 

 ones, which fact settled the question with him that 

 black and red often have the same parentage, and 

 are in truth the same species. 



The color of this fox, in a point-blank view, is 

 black, but viewed at an angle it is a dark silver- 

 gray, whence has arisen the notion that the black 

 and the silver-gray are distinct varieties. The tip 

 of the tail is always white. 



In almost every neighborhood there are traditions 

 of this fox, and it is the dream of young sportsmen; 

 but I have yet to meet the person who has seen 

 one. I should go well to the north, into the British 

 Possessions, if I were bent on obtaining a specimen. 



