17 
brush is large and full, the distance between the ends of the outstretched 
hairs 6 to 7 inches. 
In Northern Ohio, according to Prof. Baird, a variety of the Red Fox is 
not uncommon in which the long hairs of the body and tail are entirely 
wanting, leaving the soft, silken fur freely exposed. The colors do not 
vary from the common variety, except that the red is lighter; there is no 
black oa the tail, or grizzling on the hinder back. Prof. Baird states 
that this condition of the hair has been observed by him in skins of 
Canis griseus, from Chili, as well as in many other species. Regarding 
this peculiar condition of the pelage, Mr. Allen is of the opinion that it 
is the result of a disease which produces a crisp, woolly condition of the 
fur much as though it had been singed; hence the common name of 
“Sampson” or “Samson” foxes. The same author states that in Van 
Buren and Allegan counties, Michigan, about one-third of all the foxes 
taken are of this variety, and that their skins bring much less in market 
than those of the common Red Fox ; the animal, moreover, is represented 
as less cunning, and more easily trapped, and has slightly different hab- 
its from the normal variety. The specimen observed by Prof. Baird was 
sent him by Dr. Ackley. Whether this variety is still found in the State 
is not known to the present writer. 
Dr. Coues regards the Cross Fox as a “special state of semi-melanism ”? 
of the common fox. This variety, common in northern New York, and 
sometimes as far southward as Pennsylvania and Ohio, receives its name 
from the presence of a black cross formed by a black band along the back 
erossed by anotheron the shoulder. It shades by varying and almost in- 
sensible degrees into the Black or Silver-Gray Fox. 
Complete, or nearly complete, melanism distinguishes the Black or 
Silver-Gray Fox, (Canis or Vulpes argentatus, or fulvus var. argentatus of 
anthors.) The color is auniform, lustrous black, with conspicuously white- 
tipped tail; more or less of the long hairs of the back and flanks, top 
and sides of head grayish, silvery at the end, giving a silvered appear- 
ance to the pelage. The perfectly black pelts are found, chiefly, in high 
latitudes. ; 
Such pelts are extremely rare, and command a high price in the 
market; indeed the varying colors determine the value of the pelt, and 
so are of great commercial importance; they have, however, no classifi- 
catory significance. 
“While the Cross and Black or Silver Foxes are usually considered as different ‘ varie- 
ties,’ they are not such, in the classificatory sense of that term, any more than are the 
red, black, or white wolves, the black marmots, squirrels, etc. The proof of this is in 
the fact that ene or both of the ‘ varieties’ occur in the same litter of whelps from not- 
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