62 FLESH-EATERS 



With the exception of its snow-white tail-tip, and a few 

 scattering white hairs on the top of the hind quarters, a typical 

 Black Fox is jet-black. This form inhabits the same locali- 

 ties as the cross fox, and is much given to mixing with it, 

 which causes many variations from their standard colors 

 toward the typical red fox. Both these animals are some- 

 what larger than the typical red fox found in New Eng- 

 land. 



The craze in London for skins of the Black Fox to wear 

 is only surpassed by the craze in Prince Edward Island for 

 living specimens with which to start Black Fox corporations. 

 In London, Black or "Silver" skins sold (1911) at an average 

 price, for the whole catch of "wild" and "ranch" skins, of 

 $290. In 1910 the average was abnormally high, $414. In 

 1910, twenty-seven extra choice skins from Prince Edward 

 Island sold for an average of $1,361 each. The finest speci- 

 mens sometimes sell as high as $2,700; and this for a fur that 

 is by no means the most beautiful fur in the world, not even 

 in foxes, and is of limited durability. A handsome cross-fox 

 skin is, as a color proposition, far more beautiful than the 

 finest Black Fox; but the craze is for the latter. 



The London craze has developed on Prince Edward Is- 

 land, and incidentally elsewhere in North America, a genuine 

 Black Fox "bubble." Men of speculative tendencies are 

 paying as high as $10,000 and more per pair for live breed- 

 ing stock with which to start more fox ranches and get rich 

 quick. In 1912 the whole Prince Edward Island Black Fox 

 output was sold alive on this basis. 



In 1912 the fox-breeding industry in Canada, according 



