16 
GENUS VULPES. Brisson. 
To the Sub-family characters already indicated may be added: tail with 
soft fur and long hair, uniformly mixed; muzzle long; temporal crests 
coming nearly in contact. These, with the “dissimilarity in color, and 
a difference in build, easier to remark upon comparison then to express 
in words, readily distinguish the red fox in any of its pelages from the 
gray fox.” (Urocyon virginianus.) : 
The American foxes included in this genus are the Arctic Fox CV. la- 
gopus, Rich); the Swift Fox (V. velox, Aud. and Bach.) of the plains west 
of Missouri to Oregon; the Large Prairie Fox (V. macrurus, Baird) of the 
Upper Missouri to plains of Oregon, and the American Red Fox (V. vul- 
garis pennsylvanicus, (Bodd.,) Coues), which in three well marked color 
varieties is distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
VULPES VULGARIS PENNSYLVANICUS. (Bodd.) Coues.’ 
AMERICAN RED Fox. 
1784. Canis vulpes, var. pennsylvanicus, Bodd., Elenchus Anim., 1784, 
96 (from Pennant.) 
1820. Cunis fulvis, Desm., Mamm., i., 1820, 203 Grom Pal. de Beauy.). Fr. 
Cuy., Diet. Sci. 
1829. Vulpes Fanos Rich., Fn. Bor. Am., 1., 1829, 91.—Fischer, Syn., 1829, 
191.—De Kay, N. Y. Fn. i. 1842, 44, pl. 7, f. 1—Aud. & Bach., 
Quad. N. A., ii. 1851, 263, pl. 87-—Baird, Mamm. N. A., 1867, 
128. 
1841. Canis (Vulpes) vulgaris, var. fulvus, Wagn., Suppl. Schreber, ii. 1841, 
413, 
1875. Vulpes vulgaris pennsylvanicus, Coues, Geolog. and Geog. Surveys 
West One Hundredth Meridian, Chap. II., Vol. V. 1875, 52.— 
Jordan Manual Vertebrates, 1878, 17. ; 
The ordinary variety of the Red Fox (V. pennsylvanicus) may be known 
from its melanotic forms, the Cross Fox (V. deeussatus) and Black or Silver 
Gray Fox (V. argentatus) by its prevailing color: a bright, clear, yellowish 
rufous, darker on the shoulders and flanks. The pelage of the Red Fox 
is long, fine and lustrous. The hair is much silkier and softer than in 
the Red Fox of Europe (V. vulgaris). The convexity of the ears and out- 
side of the legs below are of a glossy black; space around the black snout, 
edges of upper jaw, chin, throat, breast, and narrow belly-line more or 
ess purely white, as is usually the tip of the tail. The feet are so clothed 
with long, soft hair that the claws and balls are nearly hidden. The 
