Photo by C. Reid] [Wishaw, N.B.
FOX CUBS.
Fox cubs are born from March 25 till three weeks later, the time when young rabbits, their best food, are most numerous.
If the present writer takes a simpler view of the kinds and species of foxes than that adopted by many naturalists, he must plead to a study of the subject on slightly different lines than those usually followed. The skins of all foxes are valuable, some more than others. But they are sent in hundreds of thousands, and from all parts of the northern hemisphere, to London to the great fur-sales. There these differences can be studied as they can be studied nowhere else. As the habits and structure of foxes are much alike, allowing for differences of climate, and the discrepancies in size, not more than can be accounted for by abundance or scarcity of food, it seems pretty certain that these animals are some of the few, almost alone among mammals, showing almost every variety of colouring, from black to white, from splendid chameleon-red to salmon-pink, and many exquisite shades of brown, grey, and silver. At the Hudson Bay Company's sales you may see them all, and trace the differences and gradations over whole continents. The most important are those of North America. There the Red Canadian Fox, of a ruddier hue than brown, shades off into the yellow and grey Cross Fox of farther north. But of these there are many varieties. Then farther north still comes an area where red foxes, cross foxes, and black foxes are found. The black fox, when the fur is slightly sprinkled with white, is the famous Silver Fox. This and the black fox are also found in North Siberia and Manchuria. Farthest north we find the little stunted Arctic Foxes. In the Caucasus and Central Asia large yellowish-red foxes live, and in Japan and China a very bright red variety. A small grey fox lives in Virginia, and is hunted with hounds descended from packs taken out before the American Revolution. India has its small Desert-foxes ("the little foxes that eat the grapes") and the Bengal Fox.
Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd.] [Aberdeen.
MOUNTAIN-FOX.
In hilly countries the fox becomes a powerful and destructive animal, killing not only game but lambs.
The value of the foxes as fur-bearing animals is immense. Only white, blue, and black skins seem to be appreciated in England. The black fox has been known to fetch 150 guineas a skin. But in the East, from Asia Minor to China, red, grey, and yellow fox-skins are the lining of every rich man's winter wraps. Splendid mixed robes are made by the Chinese by inserting portions of cross fox-skins into coats of cut sable, giving the idea that it is the fur of a new animal.
