Examining An Old Fox and New Fox

 1 The back of the ears are black

2  The muzzle is longer and pointed and has a clear black "tear stain"

3  The legs end in black "socks"

4  The underside is white but grey is also common these days -as are grey coats which indicate melanism.

5  The tail can end in a white or black tip and very light/white underside as well as dark grey can be found.

6  The coat varies from "cherry red", orange, a brownish and a darker "salt and pepper" colour (indicating melanism). White and black foxes are also noted showing a mix of descendents of imported foxes from around Europe.

7 When it comes to height I have recorded foxes standing at 13-14 inches (33.2 to 35.56 cms). Domestic cats have been measured at the same size and foxes, like pet cats, can very in size from small 11 inches (27.94 cms) or 9 inches (22.86).

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1  back of ears brown

2  No black "tear stain" but slight brownish colouring

3  Underside is dark and not white or grey

4  "socks" are brown in colour when found

5   coat is brown. We do know from taxidermy examples that Old type foxes could be found with white-yellowish white fur but there are no references to melanism. This fox was killed at a time of spring molting and there are some indications in text sources that mountain/greyhound foxes could look bulky and have much whiter fur during winter. Normally, as found by my colleague LM, the Old fox had a brindle look to its fur.

6  Tail was a uniform brown and occasionally white tips were reported but in other cases no tip colour.

7 The jaw seems shorter and quite distinctive -there is also something about the setting of the eyes and face shape that is noticeable.

Re Height: These mountain/greyhound foxes were large and this is always noted in old accounts.  It was stated by Colquhoun that this was a perfect example of a mountain fox. Others agree on this which shows why these were hunted  as they would also put up a fight at the end. An adult coyote taxidermy was placed in front of this fox but the coyote had to be raised up slightly for the photograph. The fox was still a head taller than the coyote!