Fox "kits"?

[Patti J. Kurtz]

My "National Audubon Society Guide to North American Mammals" says
this:  "the mother [fox] brings live prey, enabling the kits to practice
killing."

I've always called them "kits" myself.

Patti Kurtz

wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM wrote:

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Fox "kits"?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Merriam-Webster has kit, "a young or undersized fur-bearing animal."  OED has it as a short form of kitten, with references to minks (1970) and muskrats (1974).
>
>See, it's ALWAYS worse than you think: Lighter's Law.
>
>JL
>
>Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Fox "kits"?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>In a newspaper article about the taming of foxes, the author referred
>to what I know as fox "cubs" as fox "kits." Fox "kits"?! Why not fox
>"pups"? There's a species of vulpine known as a "kit fox." Perhaps the
>writer had that in mind.
>
>-Wilson
>
>
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