THE ARCTIC FOX. 237 



allied to our group of Cynahpex, and particularly 

 to C. turcica, and that it may be ultimately re- 

 ferred to the diurnal tribe of Canidae. 



The Arctic fox is smaller than the common, 

 measuring only one foot eleven inches to the tail, 

 which is twelve inches in length, and the height at 

 the shoulder is about the same ; the head is short, 

 but the muzzle being pointed, appears long; the 

 feet and soles are thickly covered with fur, hke 

 those of a hare; the tail densely clothed, and the 

 back and sides are likewise covered with wool and 

 hair above two inches in length. During winter 

 the colour is pure white, which, as the summer 

 approaches, gradually becomes bro^vner, grey, or 

 bluish, on the head and back, along the upper sur- 

 face of the tail, and across the shoulders : in this 

 condition, when the fur is likewise less dense and 

 shorter, these animals have been called cross and 

 pied foxes ; but as autumn returns, the white hairs 

 increase till they again acquire the winter dress. 

 In Russia they are more frequently bluish. A spe- 

 cimen we copied at Munich was of a chocolate 

 colour, hoary, with the lower end of the tail darker ; 

 a second, at Paris, in its long fur, is dirty yellowish 

 mixed with whitish, and the tip of the tail black , 

 a third, pure Avhite, with the tail likewise black. 

 All the above, we beheve, were derived from Russia, 

 but a fourth, entirely white, came from America ; 

 the ears of the Russian appeared somewhat larger 

 and more pointed than those of the American polar 

 regions, and the nose was more obtuse. These dif- 



