Audubon's Mammals/MAMMALS1_3.BIN/dp/0001/00012.txt

Text File | 1992-08-25 | 26KB | 403 lines

$Unique_ID{QAD00012}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{American Cross Fox     (Vulpes Vulpes)}
$Subject{American Cross Fox  red   (Vulpes Vulpes); Vulpes; Fulvus}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of America:  Volume I}
$Volume{Vol. 1:45-54}
$Genus{Vulpes}
$Species{Fulvus}
$Common_Name{American Cross Fox}
$Log{
Plate VI*00012P1.scf
Genus*00011.txt}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       A U D U B O N ' S   M A M M A L S

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.

                                      AND

                     The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.

                  -------------------------------------------
                                    VOL.  I.
                        --------------------------------


               VULPES FULVUS.--DESM:  var. Decussatus.--PENNANT.
                                [Vulpes Vulpes]

                              AMERICAN CROSS FOX.
                            [Red Fox (cross phase)]

                                PLATE VI.--MALE.


     V. cruce nigra supra humeros, subtus linea longitudinali nigra, auribus
pedibusque nigris.


                                  CHARACTERS.

     A cross on the neck and shoulders, and a longitudinal stripe on the under
surface, black; ears and feet black.


                                   SYNONYMES.

     RENARD BARRE, Tsinantontongue, Sagard Theodat., Canada, p 745.
     EUROPEAN CROSS FOX, var. B, Cross Fox, Pennant, Arct., Zool., vol. i.,
       p. 46.
     CANIS DECUSSATUS, Geoff., Coll. du Mus.
     CANIS FULVUS, Sabine, Franklin's Journal, p. 656.
     CANIS FULVUS,  var. B., (decussatus) Rich., Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 93.


                                  DESCRIPTION.

     Form, agrees in every particular with that of the common red fox, (V.
fulvus.)  Fur, rather thick and long, but not thicker or more elongated than in
many specimens of the red fox that we have examined.  Soles of the feet densely
clothed with short woolly hair, so that the callous spots at the roots of the
nails are scarcely visible.  A black longitudinal stripe, more or less distinct,
on the under surface.


                                    COLOUR.

     Front of the head, and back, dark gray; the hairs being black at the roots,
yellowish white near the ends, and but slightly tipped with black; so that the
light colour of the under part of each hair showing through, gives the surface a
gray tint; with these hairs a few others are mixed that are black throughout
their whole length.
     The soft fur beneath these long hairs is of a brownish black.  Inner
surface of ears, and sides of the neck from the chin to the shoulders, pale,
reddish yellow; sides, behind the shoulders towards the top of the back,
slightly ferruginous; under surface, to the thighs, haunches, and under part of
the root of tail, pale ferruginous.  Fur underneath the long hair, yellowish.
Tail dark brown; fur beneath, reddish yellow; the long hairs, yellowish at base,
broadly tipped with back; it the extremity of the tail a small tuft of white
hair.  Nose, outer surface of ear, chin, throat, and chest, black.  A line
alone, the under surface for half its length, and broadest at its termination,
black; a few white hairs intermixed, but not a sufficient number to alter the
general colour.  The yellowish tint on each side of the neck and behind the
shoulders, is divided by a longitudinal dark brown band on the back, crossed at
right angles by another running over the shoulders and extending over the
fore-legs, forming a cross.  There is another cross, yet more distinctly marked,
upon the chest; a black stripe, extending downward from the throat towards the
belly, being intersected by another black line, which reaches over the chest
from the inside of one fore-leg to the other.  Hence, the name of this animal
does not originate in its ill-nature, or by reason of its having any peculiarly
savage propensity, as might be presumed, but from the singular markings we have
just described.


                                  DIMENSIONS.

     Adult Male.                                             Inches.

     From nose to root of tail .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   24 1/4
     Tail, (vertebrae)   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   12 1/2
     Tail, to end of hair.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   16
     From nose to end of ear.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    8
     From nose to eyes   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    2 1/2
                               Weight, 14 pounds.


                                    HABITS.

     In our youth we had opportunities whilst residing in the northern part of
the State of New York, of acquiring some knowledge of the habits of the fox and
many other animals, which then were abundant around us.
     Within a few miles dwelt several neighbours who vied with each other in
destroying foxes and other predacious animals, and who kept a strict account of
the number they captured or killed each season.  As trappers, most of our
neighbours were rather unsuccessful--the wary foxes, especially, seemed very
soon, as our western hunters would say, to be "up to trap."  Shooting them by
star-light from behind a hay-stack in the fields, when they had for some time
been baited and the snow covered the ground so that food was eagerly sought
after by them, answered pretty well at first, but after a few had been shot at,
the whole tribe of foxes--red, gray, cross, and black--appeared to be aware that
safety was no longer to be expected in the vicinity of hay-stacks, and they all
gave the latter a wide berth.
     With the assistance of dogs, pick-axes, and spades, our friends were far
more successful, and we think might have been considered adepts.  We were
invited to join them, which we did on a few occasions, but finding that our
ideas of sport did not accord precisely with theirs, we gradually withdrew from
this club of primitive fox-hunters.  Each of these sportsmen was guided by his
own "rules and regulations" in the "chase;" the horse was not brought into the
field, nor do we remember any scarlet coats.  Each hunter proceeded in the
direction that to him seemed best--what he killed he kept--and he always took
the shortest possible method he could devise, to obtain the fox's skin.  He
seldom carried a gun, but in lieu of it, on his shoulder was a pick-axe and a
spade and in his pocket a tinder box and steel.
     A half-hound, being a stronger and swifter dog than the thorough bred,
accompanied him, the true foxhound being too slow and too noisy for his purpose;
we remember one of these half-bred dogs which was of great size and
extraordinary fleetness; it was said to have a cross of the greyhound.  In the
fresh-fallen and deep snows of mid-winter, the hunters were most successful.
During these severe snow storms, the ruffed grouse, (Tetrao umbellus,) called in
our Eastern States the partridge, is often snowed up and covered over; or
sometimes plunges from on wing into the soft snow, where it remains concealed
for a day or two.  The fox occasionally surprises these birds, and as he is
usually stimulated at this inclement season by the gnawings of hunger, he is
compelled to seek for food by day as well as by night; his fresh tracks may be
seen in the fields, along the fences, and on the skirts of the farm-yard, as
well as in the deep forest.
     Nothing is easier than to track the Fox under these favourable
circumstances, and the trail having been discovered, it is followed up, until
Reynard is started.  Now the chase begins:  the half-hound yells out, in tones
far removed from the mellow notes of the thorough-bred dog, but equally
inspiriting perhaps, through the clear frosty air, as the solitary hunter
eagerly follows as fast as his limited powers of locomotion will admit.  At
intervals of three or four minutes, the sharp cry of the dog resounds, the Fox
has no time to double and shuffle, the dog is at his heels almost, and speed,
speed, is his only hope for life.  N