THE FOX. 



97 



twenty-five dollars, though I believe they now bring 

 only about five dollars. 



The black or silver-gray fox is the rarest of all, and 

 its skin the most valuable. The Indians used to esti- 

 mate it equal to forty beaver skins. The great fur 

 companies seldom collect in a single season more than 

 four or five skins at any one post. Most of those of the 

 American Fur Company come from the head-waters of 

 the Mississippi. One of the younger Audubons shot 

 one in northern New York. The fox had been seen 

 and fired at many times by the hunters of the neigh- 

 borhood, and had come to have the reputation of lead- 

 ing a charmed life, and of being invulnerable to any- 

 thing but a silver bullet. But Audubon brought her 

 down (for it was a female) on the second trial. She 

 had a litter of young in the vicinity, which he also dug 

 out, and found the nest to hold three black and four 

 red ones, which fact settled the question with him that 

 black and red often have the same parentage, and are 

 in truth the same species. 



The color of this fox, in a point-blank view, is black, 

 but viewed at an angle it is a dark silver-gray, whence 

 has arisen the notion that the black and the silver- 

 gray are distinct varieties. The tip of the tail is al- 

 ways white. 



. In almost every neighborhood there are traditions of 

 this fox, and it is the dream of young sportsmen; but 

 I have yet to meet the person who has seen one. I 



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