56 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



In common with many other animals, the present 

 species is sharp enough to provide against a rainy 

 day by burying anything which it does not im- 

 mediately require. The food is hidden under the 

 snow, which the fox presses down upon it with its 

 snub nose. Regular caches of provisions have been 

 found, twenty, thirty, or even fifty lemming being 

 packed away together, all killed by a bite in the 

 brain, and perfectly preserved in the icy atmosphere 

 as in a natural refrigerator. Although several feet 

 of snow may conceal the hoard, the fox is said to 

 readily return to the spot to dig out his dinner ; 

 several caches may exist in different parts of the 

 country, yet all are visited with a certainty little 

 short of marvellous. In this connection one may 

 recall the story of the dog fox kept by Captain Lyon ; 

 unable to bury his dinner under the snow, the animal 

 employed a substitute by coiling over and over it 

 the chain by which he was secured. Perfectly 

 satisfied, the animal then walked away, of course 

 uncoiling the chain ; he repeated the experiment 

 with the same result. Again and again some five 

 or six times in all did the fox struggle with the 

 problem ; at last the philosopher lost his temper, 

 and settled it for ever by swallowing the meat ! 



The Arctic fox is one of the few carnivora which are 

 of sociable habits ; twenty or thirty burrows may be 

 found together, and the foxes also make long tunnels 

 in the snow. The young are born in June, and are 



