Note 325 — MENSIS APRILIS.
Reading edition
It must be confessed that the occurrence of red colour in victims cannot well be always explained in this way; e. g. the red heifer of the Israelites (Numbers xix), and the red oxen of the Egyptians (Plut. Isis and Osiris, 31). But in this rite, occurring so close to the Cerialia, where, as we have seen, foxes were turned out in the circus maximus, the colour of the puppies must have had some meaning in relation to the growing crops.