558 
CARNIVORES. 
name, although even among these there is a considerable amount of variation in 
size and colour. When we take into consideration the larger foxes of North 
America and India, we find a number of forms which, while approximating more 
or less to the British animal, yet differ so remarkably in coloration that it is at first 
sight hard to believe that they all belong to the same species; but the researches of 
zoologists have shown that all these various modifications pass more or less 
completely into the coloration of the typical European fox, and must be regarded 
as mere local varieties of that widely-spread species. 
Including, then, all these varieties under one title, the common fox has a more 
extensive distribution than any other member of the entire family; its range 
embracing the whole of Europe and Asia, north of and including the Himalaya, 
from Iceland to Japan; and also comprising North America from Hudson’s Bay 
and Labrador to the latitude of Northern Mexico, and Africa north of the Sahara 
and Sudan. The size of the fox, according to Mivart, is subject to such an amount 
of variation—that if the length of the head and body of a specimen at one end of 
the series be represented by 100, that of the one at the other will be equivalent to 
170. The length of the tail and ears is, however, much less variable. 
The ordinary English fox, as represented in our coloured Plate, is of a reddish 
brown colour above, and white beneath, while the outer surfaces of the ears, and 
portions of those of the limbs are black, and the extreme tip of the tail is white. 
Occasionally, however, the tip of the tail may be dark grey, or even black, while 
in one specimen caught in Warwickshire, the whole of the under-parts were 
greyish black. The total length of the head and body may vary from 27 to 46 
inches, and that of the tail from 12 to 15 inches. 
In Southern Europe, black-bellied foxes are far from uncommon, and connect 
the ordinary form with the Himalayan variety, which has a somewhat similar 
coloration, and is altogether a paler animal than the English fox. In its long 
winter dress, the Himalayan fox (which is generally smaller than the English), 
is a strikingly handsome animal, with the fur of the back varying from chestnut 
to dull rufous, more or less speckled with yellow, to a dark iron grey. Frequently 
there is a dark stripe across the shoulder, bordered with buff patches in front and 
behind; while the hinder parts of the back and thighs are greyer and more 
speckled with white, the sides paler, and the under-parts varying from cream- 
colour to nearly black. The throat and chest, with the exception of a white spot 
in the centre of the latter, are frequently darker than the under-parts of the body, 
in which the dusky area may be confined to a streak along the middle. Like the 
English fox, the outer sides of the ears are black, and the tip of the tail is white; 
but the limbs have little or no black, and the general colour of the tail is greyish, 
with a more or less marked rufous tinge. The face is rufous, with a black spot 
below the eyes; while the cheeks are whitish. Very different is, however, the 
appearance of the animal in summer, after the loss of its long winter coat, when 
the dark under-fur communicates a greyish brown tinge to the back, while the 
sides are paler and the under-parts nearly white. This variety is found in the 
Western Himalaya, from Nipal and Kashmir to Gilgit. In the higher Himalaya, 
Tibet, and probably Afghanistan, it is, however, replaced by another and larger 
variety which extends over the greater part of Central Asia. This large Central 
