THE FOX. 



95 



belongs to the great order of flesh-eating animals called 

 Carnivora, and to the family called Canidce, or dogs. 

 The wolf is a kind of wild dog, and the fox is a kind 

 of wolf. Foxes, unlike wolves, however, never go in 

 packs or companies, but hunt singly. The fox has a 

 kind of bark, which suggests the dog, as have all the 

 members of this family. The kinship is further shown 

 by the fact that during certain periods, for the most 

 part. in the summer, the dog cannot be made to attack 

 or even pursue the female fox, but will run from her in 

 the most shame-faced manner, which he will not do in 

 the case of any other animal except a wolf. Many of 

 the ways and manners of the fox, when tamed, are also 

 like the dog's. I once saw a young red fox exposed 

 for sale in the market in Washington. A colored man 

 had him, and said he had caught him out in Virginia. 

 He led him by a small chain, as he would a puppy, and 

 the innocent young rascal would lay on his side and 

 bask and sleep in the sunshine, amid all the noise and 

 chaffering around him, precisely like a dog. He was 

 about the size of a full-grown cat, and there was a be- 

 witching beauty about him that I could hardly resist. 

 On another occasion I saw a gray fox about two thirds 

 grown, playing with a dog, about the same size, and by 

 nothing in the manners of either could you tell which 

 was the dog and which was the fox. 



Some naturalists think there are but two permanent 

 species of the fox in the United States, viz., the gray 

 fox and the red fox, though there are five or six va- 



