426 Zoological Society : — 



strongly with those' killed about a month later, when their bodies on 

 being flayed were found to be covered with fat nearly two inches thick. 

 At this time they had entirely got rid of their overcoats, and were 

 clothed entirely in a short but close felt of dark mouse-colour. 

 Judging from the gralloch, in the summer, lichens seem to form 

 only a small article in their diet, their food then consisting chiefly 

 of mosses, grasses, and any other herbage. 



The Arctic Fox {Canis lagopus) is pretty numerous along the 

 shores of Ice Sound ; and we not only frequently saw examples of 

 it, but in the immediate neighbourhood of the cliff's wherein the 

 Alcidce were nesting one could, by listening almost at any time in the 

 twenty-four hours, hear its yapping bark. It is of course the chief 

 enemy of all the diflTerent kinds of birds, and their dread of it appears 

 to influence them greatly in their choice of breeding-quarters. What 

 the Foxes do to get a living in winter when the birds have left the 

 country — for I imagine that the Ptarmigan (Lagopus hemileucurus) 

 is the only species that is permanently resident — is one of the most 

 curious questions that has presented itself to my mind for some time. 

 The greater number of them are said to remain on the land, and to 

 be as active during the long polar night as they are in summer ; yet 

 there are no berries by which they might eke out their existence, 

 and there can be no open water, on the margin of which they might 

 find food, within miles of their haunts. The most natural explana- 

 tion that occurs to one is that they lay up a stock of provisions ; but 

 nobody, that I am aware of, has ever found such a store-closet *, or 

 has observed any tendency to hoarding in their habits. In Spits- 

 bergen I believe that none of the varieties known as the Blue, the 

 Black, or the Silver Fox have been noticed. The summer pelt does 

 not diff'er from what it ordinarily is in other countries, and the winter 

 coat seems to be invariably whitef. 



We noticed two species of Phocidce in the waters of Ice Fjord. 

 I am indebted to Mr. Malmgren for the information that these are 

 the Callocephalus fcetidus and Phoca barbata of Dr. Gray's 'Cata- 

 logue of Mammalia in the British Museum.' The former is called 

 by the Norwegians who frequent the coast of Spitsbergen " Steen- 

 Kobbe,*' or Stone-Seal, probably because it is usually seen near rocks, 



* Since the above was written, it has occurred to me that a considerable col- 

 lection of shells of My a truncafa, which I found one day on the moraine of a 

 glacier in Safe Haven, may possibly have been due to the cause suggested in the 

 text. 



t I have never seen it remarked, though it is unquestionably the case, that 

 nearly all the Icelandic examples of Canis lagopus are " Blue " Foxes ; that is to 

 say, their winter coat is of nearly the same colour as their summer coat. This 

 fact, I think, must be taken in connexion with the comparatively mild climate 

 which Iceland enjoys in winter, and, if so, is analogous to the circumstance of the 

 Alpine Hare {Lepus timidus, Linn., non auct.) always becoming white in winter 

 in Scandinavia, generally so in Scotland, and but seldom in Ireland. The Com- 

 mon Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is another case in point ; and all three may be 

 considered illustrative of the vexed questions of the specific distinctions between 

 the Great Northern Falcons (Falco gyrfalco, F. candicans, and F. islandicus), and 

 of the specific identity of the Red and Willow Grouse {Lagopus scoticm and Z, 

 aUnui), 



