SWIFT FOX. 
15 
HABITS. 
The First Swift Fox we ever saw alive was at Fort Clark on the upper 
Missouri river, at which place we arrived on the 7th of June, 1843. It 
had been caught in a steel-trap by one of its fore-feet, and belonged to Mr. 
Chardon, the principal at the Fort, who with great kindness and politeness 
presented it to ns ; assuring us that good care would be taken of it during 
our absence, (as we were then ascending the river to proceed to the base 
of the Rocky Mountains,) and that on our return to the Mandan village, 
we might easily take it with us to New- York. 
Mr. CiiARuoN informed us that this Fox was a most expert rat catcher, 
and that it had been kept in a loft without anj^ other food than the rats 
and mice that it caught there. It was a beautiful animal, and ran with 
great rapidity from one side of the loft to another, to avoid us. On our 
approaching, it showed its teeth and growled much like the common red 
fox. 
Soon after we left Fort Clark, between the western shore of the Mis- 
souri river and the hills called the “ Trois mamelles ” by the Canadian and 
French trappers, on an open prairie, we saw the second Swift Fox we met 
with on this journey. Our party had been shooting several buffaloes, and 
our friend Ed. Harris, Esq., and ourself, were approaching the hunters 
apace. We were on foot, and Mr. Harris was mounted on his buffalo 
horse, when a Swift Fox darted from a concealed hole in the prairie almost 
under the hoofs of my friend’s steed. My gun was unfortunately loaded 
with ball, but the Fox was chased by Mr. Harris, who took aim at it seve- 
ral times but could not draw sight on the animal ; and the cunning fellow 
doubled and turned about and around in such a dexterous manner, that it 
finally escaped in a neighbouiing ravine, and we suppose gained its bur- 
row, or sheltered itself in the cleft of a rock, as we did not see it start again. 
This slight adventure with this (so called) Swift Fox convinced us that the 
accounts of the wonderful speed of this animal are considerably exagge- 
rated ; and were we not disposed to retain its name as given by Mr. Say, 
we should select that of Prairie Fox as being most appropriate ibr it. Mr. 
Harris, mounted on an Indian horse, had no difficulty in keeping up with 
it and overrunning it, which caused it to double as just mentioned. Had 
our guns been loaded with buck shot we should no doubt have killed it. 
It is necessary to say, perhaps, that all the authors who have written about 
this fox (most of whom appear to have copied Mr. Say’s account of it) as- 
sert that its extraordinary swiftness is one of the most remarkable charac- 
teristics of the animal. Godman observes that the lleetest antelope or deer. 
