Changes of Colouring in the Fur of the Fox. 75 



the fox of Europe and America, more than the brown bear, 

 should be a distinct species. As to its introduction through 

 man's agency, there does not appear any valid proof, and the 

 geological evidence is very small, seeing that so few dis- 

 coveries of post-tertiary fossil remains have yet been made. 

 It may be that the red fox has been driven northward 

 from the more temperate climates of the United States, and 

 that the larger body and shorter muzzle and yellow tinge are 

 due to natural selection ; perhaps these conditions are now 

 developing with the individuals in the northern regions, so that 

 in process of time the foot will expand like the Arctic species, 

 and enable the animal to progress over the soft snow as easily 

 as the hare and indigenous feline quadrupeds. 



At all events there is a decided tendency to variation in the 

 animal as it affects Canada. For example, the Cross Fox, a 

 decided race, is often localized ; it breeds with the other, form- 

 ing intermediate gradations, which the dealers call "mongrels." 

 Sometimes the dark bands along the back and across the 

 shoulders are very pronounced, in others very faint, but more 

 or less observable in all when the skin is hung in certain lights, 

 indicating perhaps that this was the original colouring. As I 

 will again point out with respect to the Rodents, there is a 

 disposition to melanism in this fox, generally observable in a 

 predisposition to sooty shades of colouring of the lower parts, 

 culminating in what are called the silver-grey and black 

 foxes, which however are now rare * in consequence of being 

 always destroyed wherever they are seen. The silver-grey 

 might be called a black fox with grey tips to the hairs, and 

 perhaps a modification in accordance with climate, as a jet 

 black object on the snow would be very conspicuous, unless, 

 as in the sable and others just described, there was a winter 

 change of the fur of the face, which seems to be the case 

 even with the darkest coloured foxes. If, as Professor Baird 



* Skins of the last are in great demand : I have known as much as sixty 

 dollars given for a single skin. 



