26 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— FLESH-EATERS 
standard colors toward the typical red fox. 
Both these animals are somewhat larger than 
the typical red fox found in New England. 
On account of the great value of the fur of 
the Black Fox, many persons have desired to 
establish farms for breeding it in confinement, 
and several attempts in that direction have al- 
ready been made. Thus far, however, none of 
them have proved successful. In Alaska, on the 
.blue-fox farms, the Black Foxes are such dainty 
feeders that they will not eat the corn bread and 
fish which so well meet the wants of the other 
species, but require live game for food. Neither 
will they enter box traps, or permit themselves 
to be caught in any way other than in steel 
traps, which of course seriously injure them. 
The Swift Fox, or Kit Fox , 1 is the smallest 
and daintiest of all our foxes. Its color is a 
beautiful silver-gray, with a tinge of yellow. It 
is strictly an inhabitant of the Great Plains 
region from the Rio Grande to the Saskatchewan, 
but owing to the readiness with which it eats 
poisoned meat that has been put out for wolves, 
it has already become very scarce. In spite of 
its name, it does not run with remarkable swift- 
ness. 
The Arctic Fox . 2 — This creature of the polar 
world is a striking example of climatic influence 
on a species, and also of the danger that lies 
ARCTIC FOX. 
in describing a species from a single specimen. 
In the far North, the Arctic Fox is snow-white 
all the year round. Farther south it is white 
in winter, but in summer is bluish-brown. In 
the southern part of its range, the Aleutian 
1 Vul'pes ve'lox. 2 Vul'pes la-go' pus. 
Archipelago for example, except for an occa- 
sional white individual, it is dark all the year 
round, and is known only as the Blue Fox. At 
first it may seem difficult to believe that these 
two widely-different extremes are only color- 
phases of the same species; but it is quite true. 
The dark-colored animal is not even accorded 
subspecific rank. 
The Arctic-Blue Fox is a simple-minded creat- 
ure, of sanguine temperament, easily trapped and 
handled, and ever ready to adopt the prepared 
food of civilization. In its white phase, the 
finest skins sell in London at $12 each. In its 
blue-brown coat, it has a very comical counte- 
nance, characterized by much hair, close-cropped 
ears, and a total absence of beauty; but its 
fur, when taken in season, is worth in the Lon- 
don market from $25 to $50 per skin. 
On various islands along the Alaska coast, 
especially in the Aleutian Archipelago, about 
forty commercial companies are engaged in 
breeding Blue Foxes for their fur, some of them 
with satisfactory success. The foxes are fed 
daily, on cooked corn meal and dried fish. They 
come up to be fed, and when the time comes to 
handle and sort them previous to killing the 
annual allotment, they greatly facilitate matters 
by the readiness with which they enter box 
traps. 
In the New York Zoological Park, three pairs 
of Blue Foxes that were received in 1902 from 
Alaska have taken kindly to captivity. The 
great decrease in the annual supply of good fur 
has caused many persons to hope that fox-breed- 
ing may be developed into a remunerative in- 
dustry. Except in Alaska, no successful ex- 
periments in that line have been made, and it 
is quite desirable that fox-breeding in the United 
States should be taken up under state or national 
auspices, and wrought out to a successful issue. 
There is good reason to hope and believe that 
it might be developed into an important industry. 
The Gray Fox 1 is the fox of the South, but 
it ranges northward far into the home of the red 
fox. It is noticeably smaller than the latter, 
pepper-and-salt gray above, and rusty-brown 
underneath, with a red patch on the side of its 
neck. For a fox it is very agile, and when hard 
pressed by dogs it can climb small trees up to a 
height of twenty feet or more. 
1 U-ro-cy'on cin-e're-o-ar-gen'te-us. 
