FOXES. 
5 61 
scent of the fox is secreted by a gland situated beneath the tail. The cunning 
displayed by English foxes in escaping from hounds has been so often described, 
that we shall make no further allusion to it here, beyond saying that it has 
probably attained its present development as the result of the inherited experience 
of many generations. 
That the fox is an ancient inhabitant of the British Islands is proved by the 
occurrence of its fossilised remains in caverns in company with those of the 
mammoth and other extinct animals. This, however, is not all, for a skull, in¬ 
distinguishable from that of a large English fox, has been dug up from the sands 
lying at the top of the Red Cray of Suffolk, which are vastly older than the 
mammoth period. 
A very different animal from the red American variety of the 
Grey Fox. ^ ^ 
common fox is the grey fox (C. virginianus) of North America, 
which is regarded by Professor Mivart as exhibiting some approximation to the 
the grey fox (J nat. size). 
fox-like South American species described above. It is a considerably smaller 
animal than the average European fox; and is characterised by the grizzled grey 
colour of the top of the head and the upper part of the body; in marked contrast 
to which is the rufous tint of the fur of the sides of the throat and body and the 
limbs. The upper-surface of the tail is dusky, while below it is chestnut; its 
extremity being dark, and there being also a dark patch near its root, connected 
with a dark mark running along the back. The chin is black, as is a spot on each 
side between the nose and the eye; the outer surfaces of the ears are rusty red; 
the middle of the throat is nearly or quite white; while the under-parts of the 
body are yellowish white. The grey or, as it is often called, the Virginian fox, is 
found from the United States to Central America. 
vol. i.— 36 
