MAMMALIA. 95 
weight in gold. Although, from what I observed, I do not think that the Black 
Fox displays more cunning in avoiding the snare than the red one, yet its rarity, 
and the eagerness of the hunters to take it, cause them to think it peculiarly shy. 
“ Tt is to be remarked,”’ says Pennant, ‘that the more desirable the fur is, the 
more cunning and difficult to be taken is the fox that owns it.” Mr. Hutchins also 
informs us ‘‘ the blacker the fur the lesser the fox,” but neither is this latter 
remark consonant with my own observation. 
Mr. F. Cuvier mentions that the smell of the American Black Fox is: very 
disagreeable, but differs a little from that of the Common Fox ef Europe. He 
thinks the identity of the American species with the Black Fox of the north of 
Europe doubtful. The Black Fox of America inhabits the same districts with the 
Red Fox, and is never seen far withm the barren grounds. In some instances, 
however, the Sooty Fox described in page 89 may have been mistaken for it. 
DESCRIPTION. 
The Canis argentatus is sometimes found entirely of a shining black colour, with the 
exception of the end of the tail, which is white. It is more common to observe it with 
parts of its fur hoary from an intermixture of hairs tipped with white. A very fine specimen 
preserved in the Hudson’s Bay Museum has the head and back hoary, most of the long 
hairs on those parts being white from the tip for a considerable way down. The downy fur 
at the root of the longer hairs has a dark blackish-brown colour. The nose, legs, sides of 
the neck, and all the under parts, are dusky, approaching to black. The tail is black. Its 
ears are erect, triangular, but not very acute, and are covered with a soft fur of a brownish- 
black colour. In some individuals the fur, which in most parts is hoary, has a shining black 
colour unmixed with white, from the crown of the head to the middle of the back and down 
the outside of the shoulders, being an approach to the cruciform arrangement. Like the two 
preceding varieties, the Black and Silver foxes have the soles of their feet thickly covered with 
wool in the winter, no callous spots being then visible. 
