MAMMALIA. 91 
[26.] 5. Canis (vutpEs) Futvus. (Desmarest.) The American Fox. 
European Fox. PENNANT, Arct. Zool., vol. i. p. 45. 
Red or large Fox. Hurtcuins, MSS. ‘ 
Large Red Fox of the plains. Lewrsand Crarx, vol. iii. p. 29. 
Renard de Virginie. Patisot de Brauvois, Bul. Soc: Phil. 
Canis fulvus. DEesmarest, Mamm., p. 203. 
Red Fox. Sasine, Franklin’s Journ., p. 656. 
Makkeeshew. CreEE INDIANS. 
Pate vr. 
This animal is very plentiful in the wooded districts of the fur countries, about 
eight thousand being annually imported into England from thence. It bears a 
strong resemblance to the Common European Fox, and until De Beauvois pointed 
out its peculiarities, it was considered to belong to that species. 
DESCRIPTION. 
On comparing a fine specimen of the English Fox with an American Red Fox, each were ob= 
served to have dark markings on the sides of the muzzle, posterior parts of the ears, and fore-part 
of the legs ; the tails of both have an intermixture of black hairs, and are tipped with white. 
The Red Fox, however, differs in its long and very fine fur, and in the brilliancy of its colours. 
Its cheeks are rounder, its nose thicker, shorter, and more truncated. Its eyes are nearer to 
each other. Its ears shorter, the hair on its legs is a great deal longer, and its feet are much 
more woolly beneath, the hair extending beyond the claws, which are shorter than those of 
the European Fox. In short the Red Fox differs from the European one in nearly the 
same characters that distinguish the gray American wolf from the Pyrenean one—in the 
breadth and capacity of its feet for running on the snow, the quantity of long hair clothing 
the back part of the cheeks, which in conjunction with the shorter ears and nose give the 
head a more compact appearance. The Red Fox has a much finer brush than the European 
one, and it is altogethera larger animal. Desmarest mentions differences in the form of the 
sculls of the two species. 
Mr. Sabine describes a skin of the Red Fox in prime order as having “ a general bright 
ferruginous colour on the head, back, and sides, less brilliant towards the tail; under the 
chin white ; the throat and neck a dark gray; and this colour is continued along the first 
part of the belly in a stripe of less width than on the breast; the under parts, towards the 
tail, are very pale red; the fronts of the fore-legs and the feet are black, and the fronts of 
the lower parts of the hind-legs are also black; the tail is very bushy, but less ferruginous 
than the body, the hairs mostly terminated with black, and more so towards the extremity 
N 2 
