THE FOX AND HIS FUR 209 



It is cleanly in its habits, and has none of the offen- 

 sive odour common to the fox family. The Arctic 

 foxes feed largely on lemmings, and Captain Nares, 

 R.N., discovered that they had a provident custom 

 of laying up stores for the winter. Coming on a pair 

 of these foxes, Captain Nares says : ' We noticed 

 that many dead lemmings were scattered around. In 

 every case they had been killed in the same manner : 

 the sharp canine teeth of the foxes had penetrated 

 the brain. Then to our surprise we discovered 

 numerous deposits of dead lemmings. In one out-of- 

 the-way corner under a rock, we pulled out a heap of 

 over fifty dead lemmings. We disturbed numerous 

 "caches" of twenty and thirty, and the ground 

 was honeycombed with holes which each contained 

 several bodies of these little animals, a small quantity 

 of earth being placed over them. In one hole we 

 found the major part of a hare carefully hidden 

 away.' 



Captain Nares noted that the vegetation round 

 these colonies of foxes was peculiarly rich. This 

 attracts the lemmings, and is, as the writer says, a 

 ' beautiful arrangement — for the foxes.' 



As winter comes on, the white hairs of the fox 

 grow longer, and in some cases, but not all, the 

 shorter hairs turn white, or perhaps are shed and 



p 



