48 THE NATURALIST IN NORWAY. 



This animal is called in Norway the livid-reeve, or 

 white fox, and fjeld-rceve, or mountain fox. 



I have said that this animal is partial to the eggs of 

 birds, and I heard the following amusing story of 

 its sagacity in Norway : On the coast of Finmark, or 

 Norwegian Lapland, innumerable sea-birds build their 

 nests in the holes and crevices of the rocks, or even 

 lay their eggs on the bare rocks themselves. These 

 rocks are high and perpendicular ; but the more in- 

 accessible they are, so much the greater number of 

 nests are to be found on them. Now, the Arctic foxes 

 are well aware of this fact, and wishing to get at the 

 nests, they adopt the following ingenious expedient. 

 A number of the animals assemble on the summit of 

 the rocks, and having held a wrestling match, to try 

 their relative strength, the strongest fox throws him- 

 self over the cliff, clinging with his paws to the top of 

 the rocky eminence. The next fox then creeps over 

 the first one's back, and holds on by its tail, and so 

 on in succession, until a long string of foxes is formed, 

 each holding on by its neighbour's tail. The last fox 

 down bags the eggs. It is not said how the foxes 

 get back again to terra firma ; should the first fox 

 let go his hold, the catastrophe that would ensue may 

 be imagined. 



When the winter is very severe in Lapland, the 

 white foxes come southwards ; but they always follow 

 the coast line, except where they break off occasionally 

 to visit the mountains. When pressed by hunger in 

 the fjelds, they subsist on roots, which they dig out of 

 the ground by scraping with their paws and snout. 



Ancient writers, such as Pontoppidan and Olaus 

 Magnus, relate some marvellous stories of the fox. 



