Volume 28, Plate XXI / Mammalia (Mammals)

Coal Fox

Vulpes alopex

The coal fox, by recent naturalists deemed a mere colour-variety of the brant fox, is distinguished by more long black-tipped hairs on the back and a tail-tip entirely sooty black, lacking the white tip within the black found in common foxes. Equal only to the smallest cur foxes in stature, it has a narrow forehead, chocolate-brown grizzled back, buffish-yellow cheeks and legs, sooty feet, and white underparts; more timid than the common fox, it ranges Switzerland and Bavaria.