224 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
such is really the fact, the black tinge of the former 
being only still more deeply and more extensively de- 
veloped in the latter, will, we think be obvious to any 
one who will take the pains of comparing the specimens 
of the two animals now occupying the same enclosure 
in the Gardens of the Society. In this case, as in the 
last, a similarly coloured Fox is also found, but very 
rarely, in the North of Europe and of Asia ; but we 
have not been able to ascertain by comparison whether, 
as is most probable, the latter animal bears the same 
relation to the Common species. 
The gradations between this variety and the last have 
not been so distinctly marked, in consequence of the 
extreme rarity of the animal, " a greater number than 
four or five being seldom," as Dr. Richardson informs 
us, "taken in a season at any one post in the fur 
countries." In its most perfect state it is entirely of a 
pure shining black, with the exception of the tip of the 
tail, which, as in the other varieties, is white. But 
more commonly the fore part of the head, the sides of 
the face, and the loins are grizzled, as in our specimen, 
by an intermixture of silver-tipped hairs, and there is 
frequently also, as in it, a white spot upon the breast. 
Its fur, which is in reality very beautiful, fetches, ac- 
cording to the scientific traveller whom we have so 
often quoted in our sketches of the American Foxes, 
six times the price of any other fur produced in North 
America. It inhabits precisely the same districts as 
the preceding varieties, whence both it and they were 
forwarded to England on account of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, to the liberality of the Governors of which 
body the Society has been repeatedly indebted for 
numerous valuable additions both to its Menagerie and 
Museum. 
