26 



ORDERS OP MAMMALS— FLESII-EATERS 



standard colors toward the typical red fox. 

 Both these animals are somewhat larger than 

 the typical red fox found in New England. 



On account of the great value of the fur of 

 the Black Fox, many persons have desired to 

 establish farms for breeding it iu confinement, 

 and several attempts in that direction have al- 

 ready been made. Thus far, however, none of 

 them have proved successful. In Alaska, on the 

 blue-fox farms, the Black Foxes are such dainty 

 feeders that they will not eat the corn bread and 

 fish which so well meet the wants of the other 

 species, but require live game for food. Neither 

 will they enter box traps, or permit themseh'es 

 to be caught in any way other than in steel 

 traps, which of course seriously injure them. 



The Swift Fox, or Kit Fox,' is the smallest 

 and daintiest of all our foxes. Its color is a 

 beautiful silver-gray, with a tinge of yellow. It 

 is strictly an inhabitant of the Great Plains 

 region from the Rio Grande to the Saskatchewan, 

 but owing to the readiness with which it eats 

 poisoned meat that has been put out for wolves, 

 it has already become very scarce. In spite of 

 its name, it does not run with remarkable swift- 

 ness. 



The Arctic Fox.- — This creature of the polar 

 world is a striking exanijile of climatic influence 

 on a species, and also of the danger that lies 



ARCTIC FOX. 



in describing a species from a single specimen. 

 In the far North, the Arctic- Fox is snow-white 

 all the year round. Farther south it is white 

 in winter, but in summer is bluish-brown. In 

 the southern part of its range, the Aleutian 

 ' l'"/';x'.s' re'lox. ^ Vul'pes la-go' pus. 



Archipelago for example, except for an occa- 

 sional white individual, it is dark all the year 

 round, and is known only as the Blue Fox. At 

 first it may seem difficult to believe that these 

 two widely-different extremes are only color- 

 phases of the same species; but it is quite true. 

 The dark-colored animal is not even accorded 

 subspecific rank. 



The Arctic-Blue Fox is a simple-minded creat- 

 ure, of sanguine temperament, easily trapped and 

 handled, and ever ready to adopt the prepared 

 food of civilization. In its white phase, the 

 finest skins sell in London at 112 each. In its 

 blue-brown coat, it has a ver}^ comical counte- 

 nance, characterized by much hair, close-cropped 

 ears, and a total absence of beauty; but its 

 fur, when taken in season, is worth in the Lon- 

 don market from $2.5 to $50 per skin. 



On various islands along the Alaska coast, 

 especially in the Aleutian Archipelago, about 

 forty commercial companies are engaged in 

 breeding Blue Foxes for their fur, some of them 

 with satisfactory success. The foxes are fed 

 daily, on cooked corn meal and dried fish. They 

 come up to be fed, and when the time comes to 

 handle and sort them previous to killing the 

 annual allotment, they greatly facilitate matters 

 by the readiness with which they enter box 

 traps. 



In the New York Zoological Park, three pairs 

 of Blue Foxes that were received in 1902 frorn 

 Alaska have taken kindly to captivlt}^ The 

 great decrease in the annual supply of good fur 

 has caused many persons to hope that fox-breed- 

 ing may be developed into a remunerative in- 

 dustr}^ Except in Alaska, no successful ex- 

 periments in that line have been made, and it 

 is quite desirable that fox-breeding in the United 

 States should be taken up under state or national 

 auspices, and wrought out to a successful issue. 

 There is good reason to hope and belie^•e that 

 it might be developed into an important industry. 



The Gray Fox ' is the fox of the South, but 

 it ranges northward far into the home of the red 

 fox. It is noticeably smaller than the latter, 

 pepper-and-salt gray above, and rusty-brown 

 underneath, with a red patch on the side of its 

 neck. For a fox it is ^-ery agile, and when hard 

 pressed by dogs it can {'lindj small trees up to a 

 height of twenty feet or more. 



' U-ro-cij'uii ciii-c're-o-ar-gen'le-us. 



