124 MAMMALS OF UTAH 



in the lava country near Panguitch. A. W. Jensen has 

 found them in the Uintah forest. This fox is found in 

 Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and 

 and Chihuahua, Mexico. Like other foxes, it lives on wood 

 rats, rabbits, mice, and other small mammals and birds. 



Mr. F. A. Wrathall has dressed several skins of this 

 species, sent him from Iron county. S. B. Locke says that 

 they are well distributed over the La Sal national forest. 



Habits — Gray foxes do not regularly dig a den, but 

 occupy a hollow tree or cavity in the rocks, where they 

 bring forth from three to five young each year. As with 

 other foxes, the young are bom blind and helpless, and are 

 also almost blackish in color, entirely unlike the adults. 

 The parents, as usual with all members of the dog family, 

 are devoted to their young and care for them with the 

 utmost solicitude. Like other members of the tribe, they 

 are omniverous and feed upon mice, squirrels, rabbits, birds, 

 and large insects, in addition to acorns or other nuts and. 

 fruits of all kinds. (Nelson.) 



KIT FOX: SWIFT 



VULPES VELOX (Say) 



Canis velox Say, Long's Exped. Rocky Mts., 1, 1823, p. 487. 

 Canis vinereo-argentatus Sabin, Frankl. Narr. Journ. Polar 



Sea, 1823, p. 658. 

 Canis microtus Reichenb., Wagn. in Weigm. Archiv. Ill, 1837, 



II, p. 162. 

 Vulpes velox Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm. F. C. M. Pub., II, 



1901, p. 806. 



Description — This small fox is considerably less in 

 size than the red or gray fox. The fur is remarkably full 

 and dense, much more so than in the red fox, and the inter- 

 spersed longer hairs exceed in length the under fur so little 

 as to permit it to be readily seen. The limbs are rather 

 short but stout, the feet shorter and the body lower than 

 in the red fox. The tail is rather short in its proportions, 

 scarcely more than half as long as the head and body. It 

 is, however, remarkably dense and bushy, being made up 

 principally of under fur, instead of having its contour de- 

 termined by the long hairs. There are no strongly marked 

 contrasts of color in this diminutive fox. The entire upper, 

 parts and sides, extending low down on the thighs and 

 shoulders, are conspicuously grizzled with pale grayish 



