60 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 
following article on “The Blue Foxes of the Pribilof Islands,” by 
James Judge: 
THe BuuE Foxes OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS 
“The Pribilof islands have many natural advantages as a home 
for foxes. The innumerable caves and subterranean passages afford 
the best protection possible against the elements or natural enemies, 
while the bird, seal, and sea-lion life, with what may be picked up on 
the beach, have in the past afforded a supply of food rarely found else- 
where. At the present time foxes are about extinct on St. Paul and 
Otter islands and have been preserved on St. George only through a 
system of artificial feeding adopted several years ago. This paper deals 
with St. George foxes only. 
“In former times the annual quota of seals killed on St. 
Teed Sagly George island varied between 20,000 and 25,000. Hun- 
dreds of sea-lions also were killed annually. With the 
exception of what the natives took for food, these vast quantities of 
meat were left on the ground where the animals were killed, and during 
the long period from September to May, these seal and sea-lion fields 
furnished the foxes with food, when other and more palatable food was 
not obtainable. Frequently dead whales, walruses, sea-lions, or fish were 
washed ashore and, when this occurred, the killing fields were aban- 
doned by the foxes, and only resorted to again when this temporary 
food supply was exhausted. These were practically the conditions under 
which the St. George foxes lived from the time of Russian occupancy of 
the island down to 1890. During this long interval, no attention was 
paid to the animals, except that trapping was indulged in by the native 
residents, from one to two months each winter when the skins were 
prime. 
“During the summer of 1896 I had the natives salt 500 
hie : seal carcasses, the meat being preserved in an old silo 
aN formerly used by the sealing company. During the fol- 
lowing winter, these carcasses were taken out, a few at a time, freshened, 
and thrown out for fox food. The rapidity with which the foxes 
learned that food would be set out daily at a certain place and time, 
and tie numbers in which they came for it, surprised everyone on the 
island. They not only ate the meat but nearly all the bones as well. 
For an hour before feeding time they could be seen coming from all 
directions to participate in the feast. While waiting, they prowled 
around the village picking up everything of an edible nature and many 
things not edible. They came in greatest numbers when the weather 
was clear and cold. 
