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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie "FIN ". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de rdduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 L •.<* ""i-rv^t- f-^^T'' PROCEEDINGS WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Vol. II. pp. 661-676. DECeMBER 28, 1900 PRELIMINARY REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN RED FOXES. ' [Pl^ATBS XXXVI-XXXVII.] ■ r- By C. Hart Merrtam. WASHINGTON, D. C. Published by the Academy 1900 c^a>.^ z' F*ROCEED'NQS or THB WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Vol. II, pp. 661-676. December 28, 1900. PRELIMINARY REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN RED FOXES. By C. Hart Mbrriam. [Pi,ATBS XXXVI-XXXVII.] The specimens necessary for a final revision of the North American Red Foxes do not exist in any museum. Never- theless the collections of the U. S. Biological Survey and National Museum show that several well-marked forms have escaped description, and furnish material for a preliminary study of the group. For many years it has been customary to refer all our red foxes, with the single exception of specimens from the far west, to Vulfes fulvus Desmarest; and some naturalists have con- sidered this animal the same as Vulpes vtUfes of northern Europe and Siberia. Outram Bangs, in a paper published in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington in March 1897 (vol. xi, pp. SJr^S), stated that the American species is quite distinct from the European and pointed out the characters by which either may be distinguished from the other ; at the same time he described a new fox from Nova Scotia, which he named Vulfes -pennsylvanica vafra} A year later Mr. Bangs described another species, from Newfoundland, which he named Vulpes deletrix.^ Baird, in the Report of Stansbury's Expedition to Great Salt Lake, published in May or June 1852, described a cross- fox from Utah under the name Vulpes macrourus, to which 'This name being preoccupied, Mr. Bangs renamed the form rubricosa. Science, NS., vn, pp. 271-272, Feb. 25, 1898. *Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., xn, pp. 36-38, March 24, 1898. Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., December 1900. (66t) ; r '3 i h fs. tr 662 MERRIAM specimens from all parts of the far west have been usually re- ferred. Additional specimens from the type locality are not at hand ; hence I have been obliged to characterize the species from specimens collected in other parts of the Rocky Mountains — from Colorado and Wyoming. Comparison of the scanty ma- terial available from the Rocky Mountain region with corre- sponding specimens from the Great Plains, the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington, and the High Sierra in California, has led me to recognize as distinct three a'lditional species, heretofore confounded under macrourus. Of the Alaska red foxes little is known and only one species has been described — the large Kadiak Island species, Vulpes harrtmani^ recently published by me in these Proceedings.' Two others from Alaska, one from British Columbia, and one from Labrador are here added to our fauna. Mr. Bangs has kindly loaned me his types and other speci- mens from Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, thus enabling me to compare these forms directly with those from Alaska and the northern United States. Good skins with skulls are still needed from various parts of Alaska, the Rocky Moun- tain region, and the southern United States. As a result of the present study, twelve species and sub- species are recognized. These, with their type localities, are : Vulpes fulvus Desmarest mactvurus Baiid > necator sp. nov. cascadensis sp. nov. rubricosa Bangs rubricosa bangsi aubsp. nov. deletrix Bangs alascensis sp. nov. alascensis abietorum subsp. nov. kenaiensis sp. nov. harritnani Merriam regalis sp. nov. Virginia. V/asatch Mountains, Utah. Southern High Sierra, Calif. Mt. Adams, Washington. Nova Scotia. Labrador. Newfoundland. Lower Yukon, Alaska. Stuart Lake, British Columbia. Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Kadiak Island, Alaska. Elk River, Minn. Of these, the last three ( regalis^ harritnani^ and kenaiensis ) are very large — probably double the bulk of the common east- em red fox ; abietorum is only slightly smaller ; alascensis is still slightly smaller and hardly larger than deletrix^ rubricosa^ > Proc. Wash. Acad. Sd., ii, pp. 14-T5, March 14, 1900. . 'I ^mi mmttm REVISION OF THE AMERICAN RED FOXES 663 and bangsi; then comes macrourus, and finally the smallest members of the group, cascadensis, necator, und/ulvus. In the large species {regalis, harriniani, and kenatensis) the males are enormously larger than the females ; in the smaller species the sexual disparity in size is much less pronounced. VULPES FULVUS (Desmarest). PI. XXXVII, fig. 1. Cants fulvus Desmarest, Mammalogie, i, pp. 203-204, 1820. Type locality. — Virginia. Range. — Northeastern United States. Characters. — Size small ; face small and sharp ; tail terete and rather small ; black of fore and hind feet extensive and reaching far up on legs. Color. — Face rusty fulvous, profusely grizzled with vtrhitish ; upper- parts bright golden fulvous, varying to fulvous, darkest along middle of back; hinder part of back slightly grizzled vtrith whitish; chin, throat, and band down belly white ; black of forefeet spreading over whole foot and reaching up broadly to elbow ; black of hind feet reaching up in narrow band .along outer side of thigh. Tail fulvous, profusely mixed with black hairs which are most abundant on distal half of under surface ; a black spot near base of upper surface ; tip white. Compared with Vulpes vulpes of Sweden, V. fulvus is smaller ; tail shorter and smaller ; rusty of face paler and very much more pro- fusely mixed with whitish [in vulpes the rusty is nearly pure] ; black of fore and hind feet very much more extensive. In cranial characters the two are quit distinct, as shown under V. alascensis. Skull. — Small ; face and rostrum small and slender ; bullae smaller than in any other American species and sloping gradually (instead of rising abruptly) from basioccipital ; basioccipital broad. Teeth. — Rather small ; premolars well spaced ; upper carnassial with anterointernal cusp moderately developed but not projecting strongly from plane of inner side of tooth ; ist upper molar smaller than in any described species. Measurements. — Average of 3 males from southern New England : total length 1034; tail vertebra 394; hind foot 163. VULPES MACROURUS Baird. PI. XXXVI, fig. I. Vulpes macrourus Baird, Rept, Stansbury's Expd. to Great Salt Lake, pp. 309-310, June 1852 ; Mammals N. Am., pp. 130-133, 1857. Vulpes Utah Audubon & Bachman, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 1 14, July 1852. I I ■- > (^ i-ii '^4 I- 664 MERRIAM Type locality. — [Wasatch Mts. bordering] Salt Lake Valley, Utah. Range. — Mountains of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Characters. — Size and general appearance oifulvus, but tail much longer ; hind feet larger ; black of feet and legs much less extensive. Color. ^ — Nose dull brownish fulvous, grizzled with buffy; sides of face between nose and eyes dusky, grizzled with whitish ; rest of face mixed buffy or buffy fulvous and whitish ; back yellowish fulvous, darkest on median line, palest on sides of neck and flanks ; outer sides of legs dark reddish fulvous ; black of forefeet reaching up narrowly nearly to elbow ; black of hind feet narrow and hardly reaching ankle. Tail grizzled grayish buff mixed with black hairs, the black hairs on upper side of base forming a broad blackish patch. Chin dusky; whitish of throat and breast darkened by underfur showing through. Skull. — Similar to that oifulvus, but bullce much larger and rising abruptly from basioccipital ; basioccipital narrower ; carnassials slightly larger; ist upper molar decidedly larger. Measurements. — A young $ from Wind River Mts., Wyoming: total length 1015 ; tail vertebrae 461 ; hind foot 172. VULPES NECATOR sp. nov. High Sierra Fox. PI. XXXVI, fig. 2. Type from Whitney Meadows near Mt. Whitney, High Sierra, Calif. (Altitude 9500 ft.) No. f^^^, ? yg. ad., U. S. National Mu- seum, Biological Survey Coll. Sept. i, 1891, A. K. Fisher. Orig. no. 940. Range. — Southern or High Sierra, California. Characters. — A small fox of the Julvus group, resembling fulvus externally, but cranially most closely related to macrourus. Tail small as in fulvus (or smaller), differing widely from the big tail of mac- rourus. Color. — Face dull fulvous, strongly grizzled with whitish ; sides of nose dusky, grizzled with buffy ; upperparts from back of head to base of tail dark dull rusty fulvous, becoming much paler on sides, where the whitish underfur shows through ; black of forefeet reaching up on upper surface of foreleg to elbow ; black of hind feet ending at or near tarsal joint, with only slight traces on outer side of leg ; tail at base fulvous, becoming buffy whitish and profusely mixed with long black hairs ; base with the usual black spot ; tip white. A male from Atwell's Mill, East Fork Kawcah River, Tulare Co., California (alt. 6300 ft.), collected the last of March, is in the black- > From a male from Wind River Mts., Wyoming, August 38, 1893. \^ REVISION OP THE AMERICAN RED FOXES ess cross pelage : back grizzled black and whitish or buffy ; sides biiffy ; feet, legs, and belly black ; tail mainly black with tip white. Skull. — Compared with cascadensis, its nearest geographical neigh- bor, the rostrum is more slender, the bullae smaller, and in adult males the zygomata much more spreading. The carnassials both above and below are slightly larger and more swollen ; the ist and 2d upper molars and 2d lower molar are decidedly larger. Briefly, the rostrum is more delicate and slender, the molars (except the 3d lower) larger and heav- ier. The heel of the 2 tt»-i. « \ :! w >"*■ \ 'l ^'W^i J ■■i PLATE XXXVII. Carnwsial and molar teeth of Red Foxes. All natural size. F,o.x. ^«'/«/«;;-.^^.>K..d.U.>rel.M ^o. ,0,488. '• ^!f^:^tr;'^' "• ""''''' ^°^' ^«-' ^»- ^^- '«93. NO. „6. '^ " ;;-'^:^'''^ («76) 7 , / >.■■■ «*