ably smaller. Professor Baird thus describes the skull of the kitt-fox:-"The upper outline is almost precisely the same as the red foxes, but perhaps more convex about the meatus. The temporal crests in seven skulls before me do not approach each other so much as in the red fox; the shape (lyre-form) and distance of the ridges more like what is seen in the grey fox, although otherwise this is a very different animal. The post-orbital processes of the frontal bone are rather short, and are more obtuse than in the red fox. The temporal fossæ are considerably larger in proportion, and the distance between the zygomata wider. The sides of the skull at the temples are considerably more convex. The forehead is rather flatter. The orbital process is further back. The lower jaw is very similar in shape to that of the red fox, although its lower

outline is more curved."*

The dental formulæ differs very little from that of the red fox. The tail looks as if some person had shorn it, so short, and dense is the covering of fur; it is as round as a ruler, and terminates in a blunt tip, as if the end of it had been chopped off with an axe.

If different religious sects prevail among the foxes, the kitt-fox should assuredly belong to the "Society of Friends," always supposing we were to guess its creed from the style of its dress. No showy colours bedeck this tiny dweller upon the prairies, but clad from head to foot, in a suit of the soberest grey, it is in nothing conspicuous; neither has it anything to be proud of, save it be the quiet neatness of its exterior. The colour of the entire upper surface, together with the fore and hind legs, is a grizzly kind of grey, but this is overcast with a faint shade of brownish yellow; if the very thick fur be drawn apart with the fingers, or puffed open by blowing into it, it will be seen that the lower portion of the hairs are pale lead colour, whereas the tips are yellowish brown; whilst the longer hairs, interspersed amongst the fur, are of one uniform shade of brown to near the tip, which is reddish yellow, the shade usually designated "carroty" will best express my meaning. The under fur is pale yellow, but in old animals it becomes nearly white; a faint tinge of reddish brown overspreads the cheeks and lips, and extends nearly to the crown of the head. The colour of the tail, viewed from above, is precisely the same as that of the back, its inferior surface, however, is nearly white. The whisker hairs are unusually long and quite black. The kitt-fox more closely resembles the corsac fox (Canis corsac) than it does any of the North American foxes, the structural resemblance betwixt the skulls is very striking, and it is very difficult to discover "North Am. Mam.," p. 135.

any characters sufficiently defined to justify our making a separation specifically between the kitt-fox common to North America and the "corsac-fox," a native of Tartary.

The food of this singular fox is of the most varied character; sometimes it devours prairie-mice, and the smaller kinds of spermophiles; when luck befriends its efforts, a grouse is nabbed, and then the hunter feasts royally; but when times become disagreeably hard, and the larder is badly stocked or altogether empty, then in these straits grasshoppers and field crickets (Acheta nigra) are greedily devoured, and even old leather, or the hide of an animal, hair and all, comes not amiss, in the absence of more toothsome viands. The kittfox is a thief by nature and profession; hence anything, or I may say everything stealable, is most unscrupulously appropriated. Should you in an unguarded moment tether your horse with a lasso or hide "lariat," and a kitt-fox discovers your imprudence, you will most certainly find only the remnants of the tether; the horse which you expected to find safely fastened has gone you know not where. The robber, having gnawed the tether line in two parts, feasts himself upon that portion attached to the picket, or tree stump, to which you so carefully tied it.

If a hunter quits his camp in the morning, heedlessly leaving his mocassins or saddle, or food of any sort, within the reach of quadruped thieves, the first to discover it is pretty sure to be a prowling kitt-fox. Far from being content to dine respectably off tough mocassin or indigestible saddle, the glutton must needs taste everything he can find, with a reckless disregard to future consequences. A trapper is safe to pay dearly for thus carelessly leaving his camp, and returns to find his saddle with pieces bitten from out different parts of it, his mocassins minus toes, his bridle-reins nibbled into sundry pieces, the leather "possible sack" torn open, and its contents bestrewing the grass, and, to pile up the agony still higher, a dainty piece of buffalo meat that the hunter has probably been mentally grilling and eating during the homeward route, is borne off by the rascally kitt-fox. It is of little or no use to hide anything eatable, the kitt-foxes are sure to find it; the only safe plan is to place whatever you are desirous to keep upon a stage lashed securely to upright poles, and the stage must be at least six feet above the ground. I have often known kitt-foxes steal the bait from out a badly set fall-trap; and, moreover, they travel so swiftly and traverse such long distances when searching for food, that it is never safe to leave any articles within their reach, though you may feel quite confident that there is not a kitt-fox anywhere in the neighbourhood.

The female usually has young in the month of April, at the bottom of a deep hole, which she either excavates for herself, or she appropriates the abandoned residence of a badger or a marmot. The locality mostly chosen for the nursery is a steep earth-bank, beetling over a stream. The hole is dug in an oblique direction into the ground often to a depth of six feet. The number of cubs brought forth at a litter ranges from four to six, although the red men informed me that it was no unusual occurrence to find as many as eight. By exercising extreme caution, the woolly little family may occasionally be watched gambolling like so many kittens at the mouth of the hole, the slightest noise, even a stick snapping beneath your tread, sends them helter-skelter into the gloomy confines of their subterranean abode.

The grey fox (Vulpes (urocyon) Virginianus), so far as I know, is never found in Canada, but is extremely plentiful in the Northern and Southern States; it has been also found in' Texas and Oregon. Some idea of the abundance of this fox may be learned by referring to the Catalogue of the March fur sales of 1866; 17,212 skins of the grey fox were then disposed of. The extreme length of the grey fox, exclusive of the tail, is about twenty-six inches, the tail measures about fourteen inches. I have previously described the curious mane-like arrangement of stiff hairs which grows along the upper surface of the tail. The grey fox is very distinct from the red fox, but it would not prove of any interest to the general reader were I to point out in detail the osteological differences, which undeniably prove that the red and grey foxes are specifically different. It is rather difficult to define the colour of the grey fox's fur, black, white, red, and brown, are so jumbled together, that it is next to impossible to convey by words what the shade actually is. Dark grey decidedly predominates along the line of the back, but at the nape of the neck it shades off into cinnamon yellow, which colour likewise tints the head, legs, and under parts. The tail is grey like the back, its inferior surface being a rusty kind of yellow. The hairs growing upon the back are about two inches in length, and some of them are quite black, whilst others are ringed with white from base to tip; the mane hairs extending along the tail are about three and a quarter inches long, and are generally of one uniform shade of colour, although annulated hairs are frequently observable. The short under fur is mostly of a yellowish brown colour.

I do not know a more wary animal than the grey fox; ever on the watch and sly to a proverb, it is by no means an easy beast to trap. Its fur is principally consumed in the manufacture of sleigh rugs, and for lining overcoats, cloaks, and

other descriptions of apparel usually worn by Continentalists during the winter months.

There yet remain two foxes that demand a passing notice, as being of some considerable importance to the furrier: the arctic fox (Canis lagopus), known commercially as the white fox, and the "blue" arctic fox.

It is very difficult to discover the actual number of white fox skins annually imported into this country from the arctic regions, but if we assume nine thousand as being somewhere about the average number, we shall not be very wide of the mark. I find, on referring to the catalogue of the collection of animal products in the South Kensington Museum, that the number of undressed fox skins imported in the year 1856 was as follows:

From out of this heavy supply, 79,063 fox skins are re-exported to various cold countries. The chief demand for furs of this description is among the nations of Tartar and Slavonian extraction. I may instance the Russians, Poles, Chinese, Turks, and Persians. Then, again, we have another market amongst the people of Gothic origin, who occupy portions of the middle and western parts of Europe.

White fox skins are deservedly celebrated for their beauty, and the extreme fineness of their fur; neither have they the pungent, disagreeable odour that characterizes the skins of the other species of foxes. The price for white fox ranged, at the March sales of last year (1866), from 4s. the lowest price, up to 19s. 6d. the highest, which gives an average of 11s. 6d. per skin. As there were 7591 skins sold, the sum returned for white fox-skins would equal £4364 16s. 6d.

The arctic fox is principally found in the countries bordering the Frozen Ocean in both continents. It hardly needs any detailed description, because there are a great many specimens of this curious little animal in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, where five minutes' observation will do more to familiarize any person with its peculiarities than whole pages of description. As the cold and snows of winter approach, the coat of the arctic fox becomes exceedingly thick and ragged, and changes from blackish-brown, which is the summer colouration, to pure white. The winter jacket is therefore a most admirable protection; in the first place its thickness defies the extreme cold which prevails in high northern

latitudes, and, secondly, its whiteness helps to conceal the animal when traversing the snow.

In nearly every book on arctic travel the white fox is referred to, and its habits described. Pennant tells us "that in Spitzbergen and Greenland, where the ground is entirely frozen, they live in the clefts of rocks, two or three inhabiting the same hole. They swim well, and often cross from island to island in search of prey." The Greenlanders trap them either in pitfalls dug in the snow and baited with fish, or in an ingenious kind of spring trap constructed of "whalebone."

Sir John Richardson informs us that the arctic fox appears to be wanting in that extreme cunning for which reynard in general is so celebrated; "they will stand by whilst the trap is being prepared for them, and walk straight into it as soon as the hunter has left it."

It is an open question whether or not the "blue fox" is a species distinct from the white, or only a different condition of age; and as I am not prepared with any facts likely to settle the matter one way or the other, I shall not attempt to enter upon any discussion concerning it. There were only about ninetytwo skins offered at the March sales, for the year 1866.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE ANNELIDS, WITH A CRITICISM ON QUATREFAGES.

BY EDOUARD CLAPAREDE.

(Continued from page 273.)

Respiratory Apparatus.-" M. Quatrefages has actually made science retrograde in respect to the structure of the organs of respiration of Annelids. This is the weakest part of his book, alike in the introduction and in the generalizations concerning each family. The branchia have, according to the opinion of the honourable academician, a special structure, which permits them always to be distinguished. "These organs," he says, "are characterized by a single canal, to and from which the afferent and efferent vessels run. This canal, of which the walls are sometimes visible, and at others indistinct, is surrounded by a diahhanous substance, which appears to result from a thickening of the dermis. In this substance ampulla-shaped lacunæ are hollowed out, more or less developed, and always destitute of proper walls. The whole is surrounded by an epidermis extremely fine, and