Fur-bearing Foxes. 363 



The female usually lias young in the month of April, at 

 the bottom of a deep hole, which she either excavates for 

 herself, or she appropriates the abandoned residence of a 

 badger or a marmot. The locality mostly chosen for the 

 nursery is a steep earth-bank, beetling over a stream. The 

 hole is dug in an oblique direction into the ground often to a 

 depth of six feet. The number of cubs brought forth at a 

 litter ranges from four to six, although the reel men informed 

 me that it was no unusual occurrence to find as many as 

 eight. By exercising extreme caution, the woolly little family 

 may occasionally be watched gambolling like so many 

 kittens at the mouth of the hole, the slightest noise, even a 

 stick snapping beneath your tread, sends them helter-skelter 

 into the gloomy confines of their subterranean abode. 



The grey fox (Vulpes (urocyon) Virginianus) , so far as I 

 know, is never found in Canada, but is extremely plentiful in 

 the Northern and Southern States ; it has been also found in 

 Texas and Oregon. Some idea of the abundance of this fox 

 may be learned by referring to the Catalogue of the March 

 fur sales of 1866 ; 17,212 skins of the grey fox were then 

 disposed of. The extreme length of the grey fox, exclusive 

 of the tail, is about twenty-six inches, the tail measures about 

 fourteen inches. I have previoiisly described the curious 

 mane-like arrangement of stiff hairs which groves along the 

 upper surface of the tail. The grey fox is very distinct from 

 the red fox, but it would not prove of any interest to the 

 general reader were I to point out in detail the osteological 

 differences, which undeniably prove that the red and grey 

 foxes are specifically different. It is rather difficult to define 

 the colour of the grey fox's fur, black, white, red, and 

 brown, are so jumbled together, that it is next to impossible 

 to convey by words what \h& shade actually is. Dark grey 

 decidedly predominates along the line of the back, but at the 

 nape of the neck it shades off into cinnamon yellow, which 

 colour likewise tints the head, legs, and under parts. The tail 

 is grey like the back, its inferior surface being a rusty kind of 

 yellow. The hairs growing upon the back are about two 

 inches in length, and some of them are quite black, whilst 

 others are ringed with white from base to tip ; the mane hairs 

 extending along the tail are about three and a quarter inches 

 long, and are generally of one uniform shade of colour, 

 although annulated hairs are frequently observable. The short 

 under fur is mostly of a yellowish brown colour. 



I do not know a more wary animal than the grey fox ; ever 

 on the watch and sly to a proverb, it is by no means an 

 easy beast to trap. Its fur is principally consumed in the 

 manufacture of sleigh rugs, and for lining overcoats, cloaks, and 



