xiv NATURAL HISTORY. 



It brings forth from four to eight young at various periods of the year : tlius one 

 taken by us in March had four young in utero, nearly matured ; and a nest with six 

 young ones, blind, naked, and helpless, was found on 12th July; they abandoned their 

 nest on the 22d. 



It is easily tamed, and fond of being caressed ; one that had been but a few days 

 confined, escaped during the night, and was found next morning on the ice alongside 

 the ship : on putting down its cage, which it recognised in the servant's hand, it imme- 

 diately went into it. It lived for several months in the cabin ; but finding that, unlike 

 what occurred to our tame hares under similar circumstances, it retained its summer 

 fur, I was induced to try the effect of exposing it for a short time to the winter 

 temperature. 



It was accordingly placed on deck in a cage, on the 1st of February ; and next 

 moniing, after having been exposed to a temperature of 30° below zero, the fur on 

 the cheeks and a patch on each shoulder had become perfectly white. On the following- 

 day tbe patches on each shoulder had extended considerably, and the posterior part of 

 the body and flanks had turned to a dirty white : during the next four days the change 

 continued but slowly, and at the end of a week it was entirely white, with the excep- 

 tion of a dark band across the shoulders, prolonged posteriorly down to the middle of 

 the back, forming a kind of saddle, where the colour of the fur had not changed in the 

 smallest degree. The thermometer continued between 30° and 40° below zero until 

 the 18th, without producing any further change, when the poor little sufferer perished 

 from the severity of the cold. 



On examining the skin, it appeared that all the white parts of the fur were longer 

 than the unchanged portions ; and that the ends of the fur only were white, so far as they 

 exceeded in length the dark-coloured fur ; and by removing these white tips with a pair 

 of scissars, it again appeared in its dark summer dress, but slightly changed in colour, 

 and precisely the same length as before the experiment. 



8._ARVIC0LA TRIMUCRONATA (Back's Lcmmi/ig). 



Arvicola Tkimucronata. — Rich: App. to Parri/'s 2d Voi/. — p. 309. 



Allhouoh seen by us on the coast of Boothia Felix in considerable numbers, it is not 

 so generally to be met with in the Arctic Regions as the preceding species. 



