MAMMALS OF NOKTHEEN CANADA 193 



manner of domestic dogs. At Dunvegan, on Peace River, I have 

 repeatedly observed this. The males fight violently for the posses- 

 sion of the females; many are maimed and some killed. A number 

 of males thus In all likelihood cohabit with the same female, which 

 gives rise to the varieties of colour in a litter. 



Instances are reported as having occurred in which all the 

 varieties were taken in one den, but of this I am rather doubtful. 

 It is very difficult to tell the future colour of cub foxes; the red 

 appear to be cross, and the cross to be silver, which may have 

 caused an error, though I write under correction. I have seen 

 many Indians even mistaken in this. They have brought me live 

 cub foxes for silver, which on growing up proved to be cross. My 

 own theory is that the silver fox Is the offspring of two silver 

 parents; the cross, of a silver and red; the red, of two reds; and 

 the different shades being caused by fresh inter-breeds. Thus two 

 negroes will have neither white nor mulatto children, nor will two 

 whites have black or mulatto offspring. I do not know whether I 

 have explained my ideas on the subject clearly or not. They are 

 the result of my experience on a subject to which I have given no 

 small attention. I have often robbed fox dens, and have also bred 

 the animals, and the summing up of this part of my subject may 

 be thus made — like colours reproduce like; black and red being 

 origins, the cross is the fruit of intermixture between these shades. 

 I kept a pair of cross foxes in confinement at Slave Lake; their 

 offspring were all cross. I had only one litter when the bitch died. 

 Foxes are very shy animals, and difficult to tame; indeed, when old 

 they appear to pine away in confinement; when young they are 

 playful, but at all times rather snappish. They are far from being 

 sociable, and generally burrow alone, although it is not uncommon 

 for the members of one family to live together. 



The a;bove views, I deferentially opine, are perhaps as 

 reasonably probable as that of the eminent Prof. Spencer 

 F. Baird in respect to the origin of the American red fox, 

 which he and others thought might be the lineal descendant 

 of individuals of the European red fox introduced many 

 years ago, the fact of their present abundance and extent of 

 distribution being no barrier to the reception of the idea. It 

 is rather remarkable, however, that the supposed varieties 

 — cross, red, silver, and black — should, in Europe as well 

 as in America, ibe confined to the northern portions of both 



