FOX. Class I. 



months ; it breeds only once in a year (except 

 some accident befals its first litter) and brings 

 forth, commonly in April, four or five young, 

 which like puppies, are born blind; it con- 

 tinues bearing ten or eleven years. There is 

 a commonly received opinion, that this animal 

 will produce with the dog kind ; which may be 

 well founded ; since it has been proved that the 

 congenerous wolf will.* Mr. Brook, animal- 

 merchant in Holborn, turned a wolf to a Pome- 

 ranian bitch then in heat : the congress was im- 

 mediate, with the circumstances usual with the 

 canine species. The bitch brought ten whelps, 

 one of which I afterwards saw at the Duke of 

 Gordons in Scotland. It bore a great resem- 

 blance to the male parent, and had much of its 

 nature : being slipped at a weak deer, it in- 

 stantly caught at the animal's throat and killed 



* M. de Buffon asserts the contrary, and gives the following 

 account of the experiment he had made. J' en Jis garder trois 

 pendant deux ans, une J'emelle & deux males : on tenia inutile- 

 ment de les f aires accoupler avec des chiennes ; quoiqu'ilsn'eussent 

 jamais vti defemelle de leur espece, et quils parussent pressh du 

 lesoin dejouir, ils ne purent s'y determiner, Us refuserent toutes 

 les chiennes, mais des quon leur presenta leur femelle legitime, 

 ils la couvrirent, quoiqu 'enchaines, et elle produisit quatre petits. 

 Hist. Naturelle, vii. 81. The same experiments were tried with 

 a bitch and a male fox, and with a dog and a female wolf, and 

 as M. de Buffon says with the same ill success. Vol. v. 210, 

 ?12. but the fact just cited, proves the possibility past contest. 



