Fur-bearing Foxes. 361 



ably smaller. Professor Baird thus describes the skull of the 

 kitt-fox : — " The upper outline is almost precisely the same 

 as the red foxes, but perhaps more convex about the meatus. 

 The temporal crests in seven skulls before me do not approach 

 each other so much as in the red fox ; the shape (lyre-form) 

 and distance of the ridges more like what is seen in the grey 

 fox, although otherwise this is a very different animal. The 

 post-orbital processes of the frontal bone are rather short, and 

 are more obtuse than in the red fox. The temporal fossee are 

 considerably larger in proportion, and the distance between 

 the zygomata wider. The sides of the skull at the temples 

 are considerably more convex. The forehead is rather flatter. 

 The orbital process is further back. The lower jaw is very 

 similar in shape to that of the red fox, although its lower 

 outline is more curved."* 



The dental formulae differs very little from that of the 

 red fox. The tail looks as if some person had shorn it, so 

 short, and dense is the covering of fur; it is as round 

 as a ruler, and terminates in a blunt tip, as if the end of it 

 had been chopped off with an axe. 



If different religious sects prevail among the foxes, the 

 kitt-fox should assuredly belong to the " Society of Friends," 

 always supposing we were to guess its creed from the style of 

 its dress. No showy colours bedeck this tiny dweller upon the 

 prairies, but clad from head to foot, in a suit of the soberest 

 grey, it is in nothing conspicuous ; neither has it anything to 

 be proud of, save it be the quiet neatness of its exterior. 

 The colour of the entire upper surface, together with the fore 

 and hind legs, is a grizzly kind of grey, but this is overcast 

 with a faint shade of brownish yellow ; if the very thick fur 

 be drawn apart with the fingers, or puffed open by blowing 

 into it, it will be seen that the lower portion of the hairs are 

 pale lead colour, whereas the tips are yellowish brown ; whilst 

 the longer hairs, interspersed amongst the fur, are of one 

 uniform shade of brown to near the tip, which is reddish 

 yellow, the shade usually designated "carroty" will best 

 express my meaning. The under fur is pale yellow, but in 

 old animals it becomes nearly white ; a faint tinge of reddish 

 brown overspreads the cheeks and lips, and extends nearly to 

 the crown of the head. The colour of the tail, viewed from 

 above, is precisely the same as that of the back, its inferior 

 surface, however, is nearly white. The whisker hairs are 

 unusually long and quite black. The kitt-fox more closely 

 resembles the corsac fox (Ganis corsac) than it does any of 

 the North American foxes, the structural resemblance betwixt 

 the skulls is very striking, and it is very difficult to discover 



* " North Am. Mam.," p. 135. 



