l hundred to a thousand dollars, and more if the
skin is an exceptionally fine one. The Arctic fox comes next in value to
the silver, while the cross is as a rule of less value, depending mostly
on color, and the red variety sells for from three to five dollars each
and upwards for prime skins.

[Illustration: Northwestern Fox Skins--Silver, Cross and Red.]

The various members of the red fox family are practically the same as
regards habits, being influenced to a certain extent by environments,
differences in climate and food, etc., but on the whole very much alike.
They are all of a cunning, wary and suspicious nature and it is owing to
this fact alone that they have been enabled to live and thrive in the
face of the persistent hunting and trapping. They are hardy animals and
while they generally have a den somewhere on the side of a gravelly or
sandy hill, they spend comparatively little of their time in the dens
and prefer to spend the day in a bunch of grass or weeds, a clump of
brush, or, curled up on top of a stump.

In their search for food they sometimes start out quite early in the
evening, but are probably most active in the early morning when all
animal life is on the move. Then it is that the rabbits and other
nocturnal animals are seeking their places of rest and the birds, etc.,
are commencing to move about and the fox stands a better chance of
securing some article of food.

Their food consists principally of small animals and birds, such as
rabbits, partridge, quail, chipmunks and mice, but they also eat fruit,
such as apples, wild grapes and nuts. However, they are more strictly
carnivorous than the gray fox. They are fond of eggs and often rob the
nests of ground building birds, of eggs and young, and in the settled
sections have acquired a decided liking for poultry of all kinds.

The food of the gray fox is practically the same as that of the red
variety but they are more given to eating fruit and feed extensively on
grapes, apples, etc., and in some sections they feed on green corn. All
foxes will eat fish with a relish when they can get them and will refuse
scarcely anything in the line of flesh, being especially fond of
muskrat, skunk and opossum. In captivity they take very kindly to a
vegetable diet.

The Arctic foxes live chiefly on lemmings, small animals which are found
quite plentifully in the far north, but in captivity they thrive on fish
and cooked corn meal.

The mating season o