98 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
offspring.” Kalm* considers neither of these accounts as satisfactory ; indeed, as 
to the former, none of the Indian tribes inhabiting New England could possibly 
have any knowledge of the state of the sea to the north, and to this day the tribes 
dwelling even twenty degrees of latitude nearer its shores are equally ignorant 
of it. The Esquimaux alone inhabit the coast, and it is unlikely that any accounts 
from them could be transmitted through ten or twelve intermediate nations, most 
of whom have been from time immemorial at war with their neighbours. 
[29.] 6. Canis (VuLPes) cinerEo-arcentatus. The Kit Fox. 
Archithinew Fox. Hurcuins, MSS. Prennant, Arct. Zool. Suppl., p. 52. 
Kit Fox, or small burrowing Fox of the plain. Lrwrs & Cuark, vol. i. p. 400; vol. iii. pp. 29, 282. 
Canis velox. Say, Long’s Exped., vol. ii. p.339. Harwan, Fauna, p- 91. 
Canis cinereo-argentatus. Sanine, Franklin’s Journ., p. 658. 
Le Renard tricolor. F.CuviEer, Hist. Nat. des Mamm. 
The Swift Fox. Gopman, Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 282. 
Kit Fox. Fur TrapEers. Chien de Prairie+. Canap1aNn VOYAGERS, 
The species which forms the subject of this article burrows in the open plains 
extending from the Saskatchewan to the Missouri, and, according to Lewis and 
Clark, also in the plains of the Columbia. Mr. Sabine has referred it to the 
Canis cinereo-argentatus of Schreber, or the Fulvous-necked Fox of Shaw, and most 
probably correctly ; but many points with regard to its synonyms require to be 
cleared up, as authors in their descriptions appear to have confounded it with the 
gray or Virginian Fox. Schreber himself may have partly produced the error, 
by terming the animal C. griseus in his text, and C. cinereo-argentatus on the 
plate. It has long been known to the Hudson’s Bay fur-traders, its skins forming 
a portion of their annual exports, under the name of Ait fowes. It is, as Mr. Sabine 
justly remarks, the smallest of the American foxes; but the measurement that he 
gives of two feet for the length of the head and body, being taken from a hunter’s 
skin, which is always much stretched, is too great. I was unsuccessful in my 
endeavours to procure a recent specimen of this interesting little quadruped, 
* Kaim’s Travels, (Pinkerton’s Tr.) pages 13 and 467. 
+ The name of “‘ Prairie Dog” is bestowed also on the Louisiana marmot, and on other animals, 
