THE BREEDING OF THE ARCTIC FOX.' 



By Henry de Varigny. 



The taxononiic position of the arctic fox has been the subject of 

 a j(ood deal of di.scu.s.sion, which perhaps is not yet closed. It appears, 

 however, that, for the naturalists, at least — the furriers thinking 

 differently — there is no doubt about the matter; the arctic fox, being 

 a perfectly characterized species, Vuljjts l/u/ojji/s^ the isatis of F. 

 Cuvier and Gnielin. On this point authorities agree, such as St. 

 George ^livart, in his monograph on the (■(inhhv^ and our distinguished 

 collaborator, Truessart, in his Catalogus Mammalium. 



The arctic fox inhabits the Arctic zone, Spitzbergen, Greenland, 

 northern Siberia, Nova Zembla, and the northern part of Noi-th 

 America; in short, the extreme northern parts of both the Old World 

 and the new. 



The species is curious in several respects. Of all the canidm it is 

 probably the only one which, in certain regions at any rate, performs 

 regular migrations, as Richardson's observations show that it does. 

 The arctic fox is said to live in societies or communities of twenty or 

 thirty families, in groups inhabiting the same number of holes or bur- 

 rows in one neighborhood. In winter they go south, driven away by 

 the cold and by the consequent scarcity of food, keeping usually near 

 the coast. According to Parry, they begin to quit Melville Peninsula 

 in November. In January very few remain behind. The southern 

 limit of their migration varies. Along the coast they advance farther 

 than they do in the interior, sometimes reaching north as far a.s the 

 parallel of 65^, and they have been seen as far south as 59°, exception- 

 ally even at SS'^. Like other foxes, they are carnivorous. But what 

 game can they find in winter? The birds of passage are gone. Not 

 one is left. Yet the arctic fox does not hibernate. He retains all his 

 activity throughout the long polar night, and to sustain this activity 

 he must get food. Mr. Alfred Newton, who observed these foxes in 

 Spitzbergen in 1863, asked himself whether they did not perchance 

 lay up provisions during the fine season. But if so, where would these 



'Translated from Revue Scientifique, 4th Herien, vol. U, September 22, 1900. 



527 



