Aretie Fox 



birds all driven north before the cold, he hunts diligently while 

 game is yet abundant, and brings home load after load of fat- 

 bodied lemmings to be packed away in cold-storage for the 

 winter. 



Where the blue fox lives the frost never wholly leaves the 

 ground; so he digs down in the moist turf until he reaches a 

 temperature only just above freezing, and packs down several 

 dozen lemmings in a place, covering them with moss and sods. 



These caches of frozen lemmings are his principal food sup- 

 ply for the greater part of the year. 



Of course there are always polar hares to be found, but the 

 catching of them is not so easy, for of the two the hare's 

 legs are longer, and there is small chance of creeping upon him 

 unawares in that snow-sheeted country. Yet though the hunting 

 is poor and he has plenty of meat laid by for the future, and a 

 warm, cozy chamber underground, the arctic fox is not the sort 

 of fellow that sits at home and nods in the corner waiting for 

 spring to come back again. 



In the fall his fur becomes perfectly white, like that of the 

 Northern hare and the ermine, and the plumage of the ptarmigan, 

 in order that he may creep unseen among the snow-drifts, 

 avoiding the eyes of the game he is seeking, and of the gray wolf, 

 who is his worst enemy. He may run cheerfully all day long, 

 or all night long, without success, enjoying the chase for itself, 

 and the cold free winds across the barrens, knowing all the time 

 that he will not have to go hungry, unless, worse luck, the 

 wolf or the wolverine has found his stores and robbed him. In 

 that event he would probably turn thief himself and steal from 

 his more fortunate neighbours, if his prowess at hunting failed 

 to keep him supplied with food. It is pretty generally affirmed 

 by the hunters that the young foxes of the year, who have as 

 yet not established homes of their own, travel southward as the 

 winter advances, killing their meat from day to day in new 

 hunting grounds, or going hungry if the fortunes of the chase refuse 

 to smile on them. But as the dayhght lengthens and the sun 

 swings in sight again across the south, they turn back to join 

 the old foxes once more. 



And now they pair and dig new burrows for themselves, 

 where the little woolly fox cubs are born and brought up. 

 Their IVander-Jahre is now over, and they go seriously to 



274 



