D22 
fur-takers catching foxes, in general being 
high when the latter are low; but they 
show the same periodicity, nevertheless. 
This counter trend is of considerable in- 
terest because it is marked for foxes and 
because it is also characteristic of coons. 
Both animals are less common than some 
of the other furbearing species, and it may 
be that rises in numbers of foxes in Llhi- 
nois, possibly also coons, are more quickly 
reflected in index figures showing per cent 
of fur-takers catching the animal than in 
index figures showing the average catch 
Table 7.—Weighted per cent of Illinois fur- 
takers catching foxes (red and gray), and 
weighted average catch of foxes per effective 
fur-taker; data obtained from _ fur-takers’ 
monthly reports, and weighting done on the 
basis of the relative size of the counties rep- 
resented. 
WEIGHTED WEIGHTED 
Per CENT AVERAGE 
SG OF CaTcH OF 
Fur-Takers Foxes PER 
CATCHING EFFECTIVE 
Foxes Fur-TAKER 
1929-30.... 12 a 
1930-31.... 11 223 
1934-35... 14 235 
1935-36.... 15 pasa 
1936-37.... 16 Di, 
1937-38.... 16 2.9 
1938-39. ... 14 239 
1939-40... iS Das 
1940-41... 18 ORS 
1941-42.... 16 2.4 
per effective fur-taker; i.e., when foxes 
become common, many persons succeed in 
catching one fox each, whether they try 
or not, but their average is low because 
they do not repeat their success. 
Index figures showing per cent of fur- 
takers catching foxes are 0.0 to 2.0 points 
higher for 1938-39 and 1939-40, respec- 
tively, than corresponding figures calcu- 
lated from data provided by the oral sur- 
vey. Average catch indices for effective 
fur-takers are 1.3 and 1.1 points lower 
than the per fur-taker averages calculated 
from Brown’s data for the 1938-39 and 
1939-40 seasons, respectively. 
If these differences between oral and 
written data held previous to the 1938- 
39 season, then we may assume that dur- 
Ittinots NaturAL History SURVEY BULLETIN 
Vol. 22, Art. 7 
ing the seasons of this study, ending with 
1939-40, about 3,200 fur-takers caught 
foxes annually, totaling approximately 11,- 
400 foxes. 
These figures amount to | fox trapper 
or hunter to about 18 square miles, or 
roughly 31 per county; and about 1 fox 
caught to each 5 square miles, or about 
112 per county. 
Numbers of Red Foxes Caught.— 
It is not possible to estimate with great 
accuracy the annual income from foxes 
Table 8.—Estimated numbers and values of 
red foxes caught in Illinois, by two-season 
periods; estimates based on fur-takers’ month- 
ly reports. 
Sausone Estimatep | EsTIMATED 
NuMBER VALUE 
1929-30 and 1930-31 16,600 $107,000 
1934-35 and 1935-36 8 , 800 27 ,000 
1936-37 and 1937-38 17,000 52,000 
1938-39 and 1939-40 17,400 50,000 
Average per season 7,500 30,000 
Table 9.—Estimated numbers and values of 
gray foxes caught in Illinois, by two-season 
periods; estimates based on fur-takers’ month- 
ly reports. 
Chacone EstTIMATED | ESTIMATED 
NuMBER VALUE 
1929-30 and 1930-31 8,300 $35 ,000 
1934-35 and 1935-36 4,400 4,400 
1936-37 and 1937-38 8, 500 12,900 
1938-39 and 1939-40 9,200 16,200 
Average per season 3, 800 8, 600 
even by two-season periods earlier than 
1938 because of the difference in value 
between pelts of gray foxes and red foxes 
and because the ratios of reds to grays 
change considerably from period to period. 
According to the oral survey, 2.5 red 
foxes were caught for each gray fox dur- 
ing the 1938-39 season and only 1.4 reds 
to every gray during the next season. The 
ratio for the two seasons averaged about 2 
reds to each gray. If this ratio held before 
the 1938-39 season, we may assume that 
the numbers of reds caught during the 
period of this study were about as shown 
in table 8. We can be certain that the 
