Second Letter on the above Subject. “MR. EDITOR,—In 1855 you were good enough to describe in 'Bell's Life' some history of a vulpo-canine bitch in my possession at Peterborough which had bred whelps, and as you are at this period of the year for the fox and nothing but the fox,' perhaps you can spare a niche in your fancy columns' for a subject that may not be considered out of season. The vulpo-canine vixen is now, like all the fox genus, in full coat, and a beautiful-looking animal, higher on the leg than our common foxes, with more frame and size, and looks like going a slapping pace, and carries that unmistakable odour which accompanies the beast of stinking flight.' She bred a litter of whelps in the spring of the years 1855 and 1856 (got by a lion-tawny-'coloured terrier dog), and goes on heat' only at one regular period. Her produce are endued more or less with the natural shyness and timidity of the vulpine species, and which it appears somewhat difficult to remove. The formation of their heads is faultless-long, and punishing-in fact, the appearance of these animals resembles terrier dogs, with the perfect head and countenance, back, body, and feet of the fox. The vulpocanine bitch is now suckling four whelps (got by a good white terrier dog), and as their colours are likewise good--white 'with black and pied ear-patches-it is likely to prove a better cross of its sort than the two former litters of whelps which the bitch reared, they being all of foxy, wild, dark-looking colours; and, as the terrier dog which got them was somewhat wicked and crafty in nature, I am now inclined to think that, 'as like begets like,' he was not altogether a suitable partner for the vulpo-canine bitch-an animal but one remove from the veritable fox itself,' as wild, too, as the wildest fox which ever broke away in a state of nature from any 'evergreen gorse covert,' with a pack of hounds in pursuit, all eager for the fray. Yours, &c. "Dane Court, Isle of Thanet, January, 1857." ROBERT TOMLIN. The original of the engraving which heads this article has all the crouching look of the fox, with many of the wild habits of that animal. Mr. Hewer tells me that up to six or eight months old she would hiss and spit like a kitten, but has quite lost that peculiarity now. She still often disappears into the adjacent coverts for a day or two, after which hunger compels her return. She has bred a litter by a terrier, but has not been put to one of her own cross, which is necessary to be done before Mr. Tomlin's assertion is to be accepted, that the individuals of the dog and fox cross will breed inter se. And this being the only proof of a distinction of species which is now recognised, until the experiment is carried out successfully we are not in a position to admit that the dog and fox belong to the same species. |