ARCTIC FOX.—Vulpes Lagopus. 
is true that, when a human being approaches their burrows, the inmates retire into their 
homes ; but as they continually protrude their heads and yelp at their foe, the precaution 
is to very little purpose. 
In size, the Arctic Fox is not the equal of the English species, weighing only eight 
pounds on an average, and its total length being about three feet. The eye is of a hazel 
tint, and very bright and intelligent. It lives in burrows, which it excavates in the earth 
during the summer months, and prefers to construct its simple dwellings in small groups 
of twenty or thirty. 
THE LITTLE animal which is known by the name of the Assg, or the CAAMA, is an 
inhabitant of Southern Africa, and is in great request for the sake of its skin, which 
furnishes a very valuable fur. 
It is a terrible enemy to ostriches and other birds which lay their eggs in the ground, 
and is in consequence detested by the birds whose nests are devastated. The ingenuity 
of the Caama in procuring the contents of an ostrich’s egg is rather remarkable. The 
shell of the egg is extremely thick and strong; and as the Caama is but a small animal, 
its teeth are unable to make any impression on so large, smooth, hard, and rounded an 
object. In order, therefore, to obviate this difficulty, the cunning animal rolls the egg 
along by means of its fore-paws, and pushes it so violently against any hard substance 
that may lie conveniently in its path, or against another egg, that the shell is broken and 
the conteats attainable. 
The fur of this animal is highly esteemed by the natives for the purpose of making 
“karosses,” or mantles. As the Asse is one of the smallest of the Foxes, a great number 
of skins are needed to form a single mantle, and the manufactured article is therefore 
held in high value by its possessor, Indeed, so valuable is its fur, that it tempts many of 
the Bechuana tribes to make its chase the business of their lives, and to expend their 
whole energies in capturing the animal from whose body the much-prized fur is taken. 
The continual persecution to which the Caama is subjected, has almost exterminated 
it in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, where it was formerly seen in tolerable 
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