ding this at the approach of spring. In length he measures about 

 three feet and is unlike others of his family in having less pointed 

 ears and muzzle, while, as a convenience for his slippery journeys 

 over ice and snow, his feet are shod with a thick woolly covering of 

 hair. 



Like his giant neighbor, the walrus, this northern resident is 

 fond of company and the burrows are dug in communities of twenty 

 or more in one suitable sandy spot. During the warm season the 

 colony is in no danger of want, as the chief food supply of birds, 

 birds' eggs and the rat-like lemmings, peculiar to the north, is to be 

 found in abundance; but with the migration of the birds and the 

 approach of the death-dealing cold of winter, this fox would fare 

 hard had not his natural cunning taught him to provide a supply of 

 lemmings, caught when fat and plentiful. These he has buried a 

 few inches beneath the surface, where the temperature is low enough 

 to preserve them, and on them he must now depend. At this time 



108 



