THE WOT.VIOR AND FOXES. 



547 



gerous to human life, although they are much feared. They often 

 kill poultry, and also lambs and pigs, but those animals that have 

 habitually molested farmers have been hunted down and only the 

 ones that conduct their still hunt in the swamps and forest have sur- 

 vived. Because they have learned retiring habits, they escape ob- 

 servation and have lived for years in places where their presence 

 was not suspected. When hunger drives them from their retreats 

 to seek food about the farms, people are astonished and unduly 

 alarmed by their presence. 



Family CANIDAE. 



DOGS, V^OLVES, COYOTES AND FOXES. 



The members of this family resemble the cats (Felidae) in being 

 carnivores with digitigrade feet. The toes are four on the hind feet 

 and five on the front ones (except in the Cape hunting dog of 

 South Africa, which has only four toes in front). The claws can 

 not be retracted into a sheath and usually are comparatively blunt 

 and straight. The skull (figs. 2 and 14), especially the jaws and 

 rostrum, are long and the teeth number 42 in all the American 

 species. 



Like the Felidae, this family contains only a few genera, but 

 the species are probably more numerous. The family has a world 

 wide distribution, one species being found in Australia, where it 

 was doubtless introduced. Three genera are found in North Amer- 

 ica, all being represented in Indiana. 



Genus Urocyon Baird. 



Urocyon Baird, Mamm. N. Amer., p. 121, 1857. 



Dental Formula.— 1, fE|; C, Pm, M, |Ei = 42. 



Generic characters. — Front teeth with straight cutting edges 

 (no lobes) ; skull with two crests or ridges along the temporal re- 

 gion (fig. 14) ; instead of the single median crest usual among the 

 carnivora ; tail with a mane of stiff hairs. 



The gray foxes of this genus are limited to the western hemi- 

 sphere, where they have a range extending from South America into 

 southern Canada. Ten or twelve species and subspecies are known, 

 only one of which occurs in Indiana. 



