Note 147 — {358} CHAP. X.[124]

By foxes of various colours, Hearne refers to the different colour-phases of the red fox, Vulpes fulvus (Desmarest). These are the cross-fox, in which there is a darkening of the colour, and a more or less plainly marked cross indicated on the back; the silver, in which the red tinge is nearly or wholly lost, the general colour being black, with many of the hairs showing a white subterminal zone; and the black, in which the white is absent, or very nearly so. In all these phases, now generally admitted to be varying degrees of melanism, the tip of the tail is white, as in the normal red phase. A perfect black fox is one of the most valuable furs known.