OCR Text |
Show 810 APPENDIX C.- MAMMALS. Hairs on sides of tail 4} inches. " " tip 4 " Forearm 10 " Height of ears 8 " Another specimen, much like the last from Fort Laramie, has the top of the head and posterior half of the back grizzled yellow, gray, and black, anterior half of back and across shoulders nearly to elbow with a much greater predominance of black; basal half of the convexity of the ears and the entire concavity, with the edges, sides of neck and of body behind the forelegs, light- yellowish. Legs and beneath black, as also muzzle and ears, with the exception just stated. The fur is very full and soft, and the feet densely clothed with long, crimped, soft hair. Another specimen indicates quite a different variety, with a much closer resemblance to the red fox. The colour above is light ferruginous, deeper toward the dorsal line; beneath, white. The hairs at the base are, as usual, lead colour. The fur, however, along and toward the dorsal line is terminated for the greater part of its length by a rich chestnut, rather darker behind. The long scattered hairs on the back are mostly black, tipped with light yellow; laterally, this fur is light ferruginous, fading off into white toward the belly. This ferruginous is more distinct immediately over the back. Inner sides of legs, sides of head, and concavity of ears, likewise yellowish white. Upper part of muzzle, around the eye, and on top of head, grizzled chestnut, like the back. Convexity of posterior surface of ear, black. The sides of the soles also indicate black, although the legs are too much mutilated to show distinctly the colour. The general colour of the tail is yellowish white, deeper above: the long hairs of top and sides tipped with black. Tip of the tail, white. The feet in all the varieties are densely covered with hair on the under surface. In this species we find all the varieties of the common red fox, Vulpes fulvus, as the chestnut, the black, the silver gray, cross, & c. How far its range extends we are at present unable to state. It probably, however, reaches the Pacific coast, and far to the north in the Rocky Mountains. Indeed, we consider it very improbable that the ordinary red fox extends west of the Missouri. As regards the eastern range, we have seen specimens from Fort Laramie, and Audubon and Bachman refer to a skin from Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, which may possibly belong to the same species. |