December, 1902.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



271 



TWO FASHIONABLE FURS. 



By K. Lydekker. 



To tliose whci are of au observant nature, an afteruoon's 

 stroll through auj of the fashionable Lomlou thorougli- 

 fares during last winter must have revealed the prevalence 

 of a fashion for the Iwautiful furs resjieetivelv known 

 as blue fox and white fox. The skins of these animals 

 are either worn entire as l>oas (or " necklets "' as, I am 

 told, fliey are called by ladies) or made up as muffs, 

 and in either condition are strikingly beautiful. Blue fox 

 has long Iwen highly esteemed as a fur, skins selling for 

 K'tween ten and fourteen guimas a dozen years ago. White 

 fox, on the other hand, lia.s only during the last yeiir or 

 two been aj)j)reeiated as its beauty deserves, the jiriee per 

 skin having risen from between half-a-crown and si.xteen 

 shillings and sixpence in 1891, to three or four guineas, or 

 even more, during last season. 



But it is not the price of either the blue or the white 

 skins that I propose to discuss in detail in the present 

 communication. The circumstance to which I desire to 

 draw the attention of my readers is the ver}' remarkable 

 one that both the l>lue and the white skins belong to one 

 and the same kind of animal. At first sight tins may 

 seem, i)erhaps, a fact of no special interest or importance. 

 For, as we all know, certain species of mammals, such as 

 the stoat or ermine, the mountain hare, and the lemming, 

 are normally white in certain parts of their habitats in 

 winter and dark-coloured in summer. Again, many mam- 

 mals vary to a great extent in coloration according to 

 locality, so that there may be dark-coloured and light- 

 coloured i-aces inhabiting different localities. The most 

 striking instance of this is, porbajis, the bighorn wild 

 sheep of North America, which in the Rocky Mountains is a 

 " khaki "-coloured animal with a white rump, but in Alaska 

 is nearly pure white all over throughout the year. It is 

 true, indeed, that American naturalists prefer to regard the 

 bighorns of the Kocky Mountains and Alaska as distinct 

 species rather than local luces of a single variable animal, 

 but for our present purpose such slight differences of 

 opinion do not really aft'ect the case one way or the other. 



That white fox and blue fox are not (as was once sup- 

 posed to be the case by some naturalists) the summer and 

 ■winter coats of the same individual animals, will be 

 apparent by a comparison of furs of the two descriptions 

 worn by our lady friends. The two descriptions have the 

 same long thick hair, with a woolly under-fur at the base, 

 and both are evidently the winter coats of the animals to 

 ■which they respectively belong. Indeed, with all long- 

 haired animals of the northern parts of the Old World, 

 with the possible exception of the ]>olar bear, it is the 

 ■winter coat that is alone valued by the furrier. 



That blue and white foxes are not local races of the 

 same species (or distinct species) is evident from the fact 

 that in certain districts both occur together, although in 

 other localities (as in Iceland, where all the foxes are blue) 

 only one form may be met with. It may indeed be pos- 

 sible that in some cases blue and white cubs may occur in 

 the same litter. For instance. Professor A. .S. Packard, 

 in his work entitled " The Labrador Coast," states he was 

 informed by a native " that the white and blue fox littered 

 together, but that the blue variety was very rare." More 

 precise information is required on the subject of their 

 interbreeding, but it is quite certain that the blue fox and 

 white fox of the fvirrier are only individual phases of the 

 winter coat of a single sjiecies. 



Although it is stated that white specimens are occasion- 

 ally met with in summer, the white pha-^e of the Arctic 

 fox (as the species is called) normally assumes a dark 

 coat in summer. The difference between the winter and 



summer coats of this phase of the species is well illustrated 

 1\V a couple of specimens which have recently been i)laced in 

 the central hall of theNat\iral History Museiun, in Cromwell 

 Koad. In the case containing the mountain hare, ptar- 

 migan, stoat, and weasel in their white winter dress has 

 been introduced a specimen of the Arctic fox in the same 

 coat. To contrast with this, t\n^ case in which are placed 

 the above-mentioned animals in their dark summer costume 

 now contains a specimen of the white ]ihase of the Arctic 

 fox in its dark summer livery. In this specimen, the hair 

 (which is much shorter than that of the example in the 

 winter dress) is dirty rufous brown shading into grey on 

 the upper-parts and outer sides of the limbs, and yellowish 

 white below. In other examples the colour of the u)>iier- 

 ]>arts is greyer, while the inider-parts are nearly pure white. 

 Sometimes also, it is stated, that grey hairs are largely 

 mingled with the white winter coat, so that we have a 

 more or less marked tendency towards the blue phase 

 even in the winter dress. In all cases the mu/zle remains 

 black, and it is stated that there nia_y occasionally be a 

 black tail-tip in the white winter dress. I have not seen 

 a "blue fox" in the summer dress, but am told that the 

 coat is then chiefly distinguished from its winter condition 

 Ijy its much shorter hairs and less pure blue colour. 



Of course the so-called " blue" of even the best skins is 

 a slaty or French grey rather than a blue in the jiroper 

 sense of the word, and in maiiy instances it tends to drab 

 or dark purplish. Alaskan blue fox, which is somewhat 

 coarse in the texture of the fur, has this puridish or sooty 

 tinge most strongly developed, and at one time was 

 specially valued on this accoimt, although during the past 

 season the lighter varieties seem to have been chiefly in 

 demand. 



Lest any of my readers should be led to think that the 

 Arctic fox is a near relative of the common species, it may 

 be well to state, before going any further, that it is a very 

 distinct animal indeed. Apart from its coloration, the 

 most distinctive features of the species are to be found in 

 its short rounded ears (which look almost as though they 

 had been cropped), moderately sharp muzzle, very long 

 and bushy tail, and the coat of hair on the soles of the 

 feet. I'rom this latter feature the species takes its name 

 of Catiis (or Vulpes) hi(joptig ; the object of the hairy soles 

 being, of course, to afford the animal a firm foothold on 

 the ice and frozen snow on which it passes so much of its 

 time. In having two distinct colour-phases at all seasons 

 of the year, which may be met with in the same locality, 

 the Arctic fox stands practically unique among mammals. 

 It is true that, according to Mr. F. C. Selous, black-maued 

 and yellow-maned lions occasionally occur in the same 

 litter, while black leopards and black jaguars are found 

 now and then among litters of cubs of the ordinary 

 colour. But neither of these instances are exactly on all 

 fours with the case of the Arctic fox With regard to the 

 lion, it has now been ascertained that the black maned 

 and tawny-maned specimens belong, iu most cases at any 

 rate, to distinct local races; and, as Mr. Walter Rothschild 

 has recently pointed out, it is most probable that when 

 light and dark. maned cubs are met with in the same 

 litter it is due to crossing between two of these races. 

 Black or melanistic leopards and jaguars, on the other 

 hand, arc moi'e analagous to albinoes, and generally occur 

 in hot and damp climates. The black phise of the 

 common water-vole, found high up in many British valleys, 

 is an instance somewhat analogous to that of black 

 leopards, being apparently due to climatic conditions, and 

 therefore not strictly comparable with the case of the 

 Arctic fox. 



Many invertebrate animals exhibit two or more distinct 

 phases, — generally differing to a certain extent from each 



