204 APPENDIX. No. II. 



have seen a lemming baffle the attempts at capture of a 

 long-tailed skua by the same tactics. The female brings 

 forth from three to five at a birth in June and July, making 

 a comfortable nest of grass for their reception. 



13. Lepus glacialts {Leach). — The Polar hare was 

 found, though in scanty numbers, along the shores of Grinnell 

 Land, and its footprints were seen on the snow-clad ice of the 

 Polar Sea by Captain Markham and Lieutenant Parr in lat. 

 83° 1 0' N., a distance of about twenty miles north of the 

 nearest land. In the autumn of 1875 three or four examples 

 were shot in the neighbourhood of our winter- quarters, lat. 

 82° 27' N., and as soon as a glimmer of light enabled us to 

 make out their tracks in the snow we were off in pursuit of 

 them. On February 14, two weeks before the sun reappeared 

 at midday, the temperature minus 56°, I started one from its 

 burrow, a hole about four feet in length, scraped horizontally 

 into a snowdrift. I have no doubt the same burrow is 

 regularly occupied, as this one was discoloured by the feet of 

 the animal, and a quantity of hair was sticking to the sides ; 

 all around the hare had been scratching up the snow and 

 feeding on Saxifraga oppositifolia. Even where exposed by 

 the wind, this hardy plant had delicate green buds showing 

 on the brown withered surface of the last year's growth. The 

 hare does not tear up this plant by the roots, but nibbles off 

 the minute green shoots. On February 1 9, a hare was shot 

 by Dr. Moss ; it was a male, and weighed nine pounds and a 

 half; and another was obtained on the 20th. On May 18, at 

 Westward Ho ! Valley, I shot two hares, one was a female 

 and contained eight young ones. By the end of July the 

 young were nearly as large as their parents, and were pure 

 white, save the tips of the ears, which were mouse-grey, with 

 a small streak of the same colour passing down from the apex 

 of the head to the snout. The adults have the ears tipped 

 with black. The number of young that we found in gravid 

 females varied from seven to eight, which is much in excess 

 of that produced in Great Britain by Lepas variabilis, 

 from which naturalists have found difficulty in separating 



