24 6 CROSSED BREEDS. 



Second Letter on the above subject. 



"Me. Editor,— In 1855 you were good enough to describe in 'Bell's Life' 

 some history of a vulpo-canine bitch in my possession at Peterborough which 

 had bred whelps, and as you are at this period of the year ' for the fox and 

 nothing but the fox,' perhaps you can spare a niche in your ' fancy columns ' 

 for a subject that may not be considered out of season. The vulpo-canirie 

 vixen is now, like all the fox genus, in full coat, and a beautiful-looking 

 animal, higher on the leg than our common foxes, with more frame and size, 

 and looks like going a slapping pace, and carries that unmistakable odour 

 which accompanies ' the beast of stinking flight.' She bred a litter of whelps 

 in the spring of the years 1855 and 1856 (got by a 'lion-tawny' coloured terrier 

 dog), and goes ' on heat ' only at one regular period. Her produce are endued 

 more or less with the natural shyness and timidity of the vulpine species, and 

 which it appears somewhat difficult to remove. The formation of their heads 

 is faultless — long and punishing ; in fact, the appearance of these animals re- 

 sembles terrier dogs, with the perfect head and countenance, back, body, and 

 feet of the fox. The vulpo-canine bitch is now suckling four whelps (got by 

 a good white terrier dog), and as their colours are likewise good — white ' with 

 black and pied ear-patches ' — it is likely to prove a better cross of its sort than 

 the two former litter of whelps which the bitch reared, they being all of 

 foxy, wild, dark-looking colours ; and as the terrier dog which got them was 

 somewhat wicked and crafty in nature, I am now inclined to think that, ' as 

 like begets like,' he was not altogether a suitable partner for the vulpo-canine 

 bitch — an animal but one remove from the ' veritable fox itself,' as wild, too, 

 as the wildest fox which ever broke away in a state of nature from any ' ever- 

 green gorse covert,' with a pack of hounds in pursuit, all eager for the fray.— 

 Yours, &c. Robert Tomlin. 



" Dane Coubt, Isle op Thanet, January 1857." 



The original of the engraving which heads this article has all 

 the crouching look of the fox, "with many of the wild hahits of 

 that animal. Mr. Hewer tells me that up to six or eight months 

 old she would hiss and spit like a kitten, but has quite lost that 

 peculiarity now. She still often disappears into the adjacent 

 coverts for a day or two, after which hunger compels her return. 

 She has bred a litter by a terrier, but has not been put to one of 



