CHAPTER IV. 



THE ARCTIC FAUNA. 



THE lands lying within the Polar Circle are inhabited 

 by an assemblage of animals and plants, many of 

 which are peculiar to those regions. They are mostly 

 adapted to the abnormal conditions of life prevailing 

 in the high latitudes of our globe the long, dark 

 winters, and the short summers of one long day. 

 Though the numbers of species and of individuals arc 

 few, there is a keen struggle for existence in those 

 regions. The prevailing colour of the ground is white, 

 and since a resemblance in the colour of an animal 

 to the ground it lives on acts as a protection to weak 

 ones, and also enables Carnivores to approach their 

 prey with greater facility, it is not surprising that we 

 should find the majority of polar animals coloured 

 white. As I remarked, the polar area contains a very 

 distinct set of species; most of them, however, range 

 beyond the confines of the Arctic Circle. It is there- 

 fore scarcely justifiable to raise this Arctic area into a 

 distinct zoological region equivalent to the great zoo- 

 geographic regions, which have been established by 

 Sclater and Wallace, though we might, with Dr. 

 Brauer, look upon it as a sub-region. 



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