210 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



shod with moccasins of hair, giving them a firm hold 

 on the slippery rocks, snow, and ice, over which it 

 leaves its tiny tracks from Labrador to the Lincoln 

 Sea. Every arctic explorer from Steller down has 

 had much to say of this animal, the accounts given 

 by Richardson, Feilden, and Nelson being especially 

 full and good. The most remarkable feature of its 

 history relates to its varying phases of coloration. 

 During the short arctic summer its dress is brown 

 with the under parts lighter, often drab. In autumn 

 this coat is replaced by one of pure white, beneath 

 which is a fine wool; and this warm, white dress, 

 invisible against the snow, is the normal winter hue 

 of the great majority of arctic foxes. A small pro- 

 portion, however, are never either white or dark 

 brown, but are slate-gray all the year round. This 

 double phase may occur anywhere, one or two, per- 

 haps, arising from a litter that becomes white; but 

 in some rather southerly places the 'blues' prevail, 

 forming a local race. Such is the case in Greenland, 

 Iceland, and in the Aleutian Islands, where blue 

 foxes are now carefully preserved and cared for in a 

 semidomestic condition, for the sake of their highly 

 valuable fur, a certain number being killed an- 

 nually. ' ' 



The American red fox. Returning now to 

 the common or red fox, it appears that this is 

 one of the most widely distributed of animals, 

 for it is hard to distinguish more than such 



