28 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
Pennant* under the head of European Fox, observes, 
“ It inhabits the northern parts of North America. This 
species gradually decreases to the southward in numbers 
and size; none are found lower than Pennsylvania. They 
are supposed not to have been originally natives of that 
country. The Indians believe they came from the north 
of Europe, in an excessive hard winter, when the sea was 
frozen. The truth seems to be, that they were driven in 
some severe season from the north of their own country, 
and have continued there ever since. The variety of 
British Fox with a black tip to the tail, seems unknown in 
America.” 
Kalm says, “ The red Foxes are very scarce here (New 
York); they are entirely the same with the European 
sort. Mr. Bartram and several others assured me, that, 
according to the unanimous testimony of the Indians, this 
kind of F ox never was seen in the country before the Eu- 
ropeans settled in it. But of the manner of their coming 
over, I have two accounts. Mr. Bartram, and several 
other people, were told by the Indians, that these Foxes 
came into America soon after the arrival of the Europeans, 
after an extraordinary cold winter, when all the sea to the 
northward was frozen. But Mr. Evans and some others, 
assured me that the following account was still known by 
the people. A gentleman in New England, who had 
much inclination for hunting, brought over a great number 
of Foxes from Europe, and let them loose in his terri- 
tories, that he might be able to indulge his passion for 
hunting. This, it is said, happened at the very beginning 
of New England’s being peopled with European inhabi- 
tants. These Foxes were believed to have so multiplied, 
that all the red Foxes in the country were their off- 
spring. ”t It is due to Kalm to state, that he considers 
neither of these accounts as satisfactory. Custis states, 
“ The Foxes hunted fifty years ago were gray Foxes, with 
one exception, this was a famous black Fox;” and in a 
note says, “ The red Fox is supposed to have been im- 
ported from England to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, 
by a Mr. Smith, and to have emigrated across the ice to 
Virginia, in the hard winter of 1779-80, when the Chesa- 
peake was frozen over.”J 
A correspondent in the American Sporting Magazine 
says, “ I think it probable that they were brought over 
and turned out at other places, and at very early periods. 
In 1789, when quite a boy, I was at the death of the first 
red Fox killed in Perry county, Pennsylvania. Not a 
person present, or any one who saw it for some days, had 
ever seen or heard of an animal of the kind. At last it was 
* Arctic Zoology, 
t Travels in North America. 
t Recollections of Washington, (extract from Sporting Mag.) 
shown to a Mr. Lenarton, an old Jersey man, who pro- 
nounced it an English Fox. He said the red Fox was 
imported into New York from England, by one of the 
first English governors, who was said to be a. great sports- 
man, and turned out on Long Island, where they remained 
for many years, but at last made their way on the ice to the 
main land and spread over the country. The red Fox and 
Canada hare are migrating south and west.”* 
In another letter from a correspondent in the same work 
the writer observes, “ with us (Virginia) he is supposed 
to have been brought from the continent — Germany, I 
think — and not from the island of Great Britain. I re- 
member well, when the first red Fox was seen in my native 
part of Virginia (in Goochland, on James’ River,) and the 
sensation it created among sportsmen. This was about 
fifteen years ago. ”t 
Both the above writers also state, that the gray Fox ( V. 
Virginianus) disappears on the appearance of the red. 
This, however, is not the case, as in many parts they are 
equally numerous. 
Such, as far as we have been able to investigate, are the 
proofs, that the red Fox is identical with the common Fox 
of Europe, being in fact descended from it. On the other 
hand many writers, as F. Cuvier, Desmarest, and Harlan, 
admit and describe the red Fox as a distinct species, but at 
the same time state that the European Fox is also an inhabi- 
tant of North America. Dr. Richardson says, the latter 
is probably a native of New Caledonia, and further ob- 
serves, “ Several of the voyagers who have visited the At- 
lantic coast of North America, mention two kinds of red 
Fox skins in possession of the natives; the one having a 
fine, long, silvery fur, of a reddish yellow colour, (C. 
fulvus?) the other of a smaller size, having shorter and 
coarser fur and less lively tints of colour ( C. vulpes?) I 
think it very probable that an investigation into the charac- 
ters of the American Foxes, will show that the reddish 
Fox of the Atlantic States is a variety of the C. cinereus , 
(Q. does Dr. Richardson mean the gray Fox by the C. 
cinereus ?) which has been mistaken for the European 
Fox.”J 
From the above contradictory and unsatisfactory ac- 
counts, we have been led to believe that there is but one 
species of red Fox in the United States, and the country 
north of them; this opinion is strengthened by much col- 
lateral evidence. Thus, Dr. Richardson expressly states, 
“ It (the common Fox) does not exist in the countries 
north of Canada, lying to the eastward of the Rocky 
Mountains, and consequently did not come under our 
* American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, i. 74. 
t Ibid. i. 197. 
t Richardson, Faun. am. bor. 97. 
