5 6 4 



CARNIVORES. 



illustration. Moreover, occasionally, pure white foxes are to be met with in summer. 

 In Iceland, where the winter is less severe than in the more northerly regions, the 

 winter dress of the Arctic fox is nearly similar to the summer one, so that these 

 animals are " blue " at all seasons. 



The assumption of a white dress in winter is in order to assimilate the colour 

 of the animal to that of the snow-fields among which it dwells, and it is somewhat 

 difficult to understand why the change does not invariably take place in the more 



ARCTIC FOX, IN WINTER DRESS ( liat. size). 



northern regions. The hair clothing the soles of the feet is to aid the creature in 

 obtaining a sure foothold on frozen snow and ice. 



According to Richardson, Arctic foxes, which were formerly abundant on the 

 shores of Hudson's Bay, dwelt there in small colonies of from twenty to thirty 

 burrows each. During the autumn and winter such of these foxes as inhabit the 

 more northern districts of Arctic America undertake a southerly migration, keeping 

 as much as possible to the coasts, and the length of the migration depending to a 

 considerable extent whether the line of the coast coincides with the line of march. 

 The Arctic fox preys largely upon birds, especially upon various members of the 

 auk family, as we learn from Professor A. Newton, who writes, that " the Arctic 

 fox is pretty numerous along the shores of the Ice Sound [Spitzbergen] ; and we 

 not only frequently saw examples of it, but in the immediate neighbourhood of the 



