THE DOGS. 299 



moti red fox ( Vul))es v%i,lgaris), with its varieties, the cross, 

 silver, and black fox, as well as the wolf {C'anis hipm), are 

 valuable for their furs. The common red fox is more com- 

 mon even in thickly settled portions of the Eastern States 

 than is commonly supposed. Merriam thinks that it is as 

 abundant now as a hundred years ago. " Wily, crafty, and 

 sagacious to a degree almost beyond credibility, he defies 

 the superior skill and intelligence of man, and meets with 

 shrewd manoeuvre and subtle stratagem all attempts at his 

 extermination." He is active by day as well as night, and 

 "preys upou skunks, woodchucks, musk-i'ats, hares, rab- 

 bits, squirrels, mice, and small birds and eggs. He is a 

 well-known and much-dreaded depredator of the poultry- 

 yard, destroying with equal alacrity turkeys, ducks, geese, 

 hens, chickens, and doves; and has been known to make off 

 with young lambs. He will also eat carrion, and even fish, 

 and is said to be fond of ripe grapes and strawberries." 

 Merriam, from whom we have quoted, tells us that the fox 

 makes its nest in caverns and ledges of rocks, in burrows 

 in the earth, and occasionally in old stumps and hollow 

 logs. Trom four to nine yonng are brought forth at a 

 time, the usual ]ieriod being witli us (Northern New York) 

 the latter part of March or first of April. 



The wolf is one of the most cowardly and yet wary, crafty, 

 and sagacious of our wild beasts, and, when game is abun- 

 dant, wantonly destructive and wasteful. It makes its lair 

 in rocky caverns, under the roots of fallen trees, and in 

 hollow logs. The young are born in April and May, from 

 six to ten pups constituting a litter. (Merriam.) The wolf 

 is mostly gray northward, becoming " southward more and 

 more blackish and reddish, till in Florida black wolves pre- 

 dominate and ill Texas red ones." The iirairie wolf or 

 coyote (Cants latrans) is characteristic of the Western 

 plains and Pacific coast. The Indian dogs breed with the 

 coyote, and the offspring is fertile. This fact iqipears to 

 support the theory that the domestic dog (with its conven- 

 tional name Canis familiaris Linn.) is a descendant of the 



