200 The Zoologist— Mav, 1866. 



that is permanently resident — is one of the most curious questions 

 that has presented itself to my mind for some time. The greater 

 number oi them are said to remain on the land, and to be as active 

 dnring the polar night as they are in summer; yet there are no berries 

 bv which they might eke out theirexislence, and there can be no open 

 water, on the margin of which ihey uiight find food, within miles of 

 their haunts. The most natural explanation that occurs to one is that 

 they lay up a stock of provisions ; but nobody, that 1 am aware of, lias 

 ever found such a store closet,* or has observed any tendency to 

 hoarding in their habits. In Spit/sbergen I believe that none of the 

 varieties known as the blue, the black, or the silver fox have been 

 noticed. The summer pelt does not dififer from what it ordinarily 

 is in other countries, and the winter coat seems to be invariably 

 while, t 



We noticed two species of Phocida? in the waters of Ice Fjord. I 

 am indebted to Mr. Mahngren for the information that these are the 

 Callocephalus fcctidtis and Phoca barbata of Dr. Gray's' Catalogue of 

 Mammalia in the British Museum.' The f )rmer is called by the Nor- 

 wegians who frequent the coast of Spitsbergen " steen-kobbe," or 

 stone-seal, probably because it is usually seen near rocks, or at any 

 rate at no great distance from laud ; the latter is known as " stor 

 kobbe," great seal, or less frequently " blaa kobbe," blue seal. How 

 this last name came to be applied to it I do not know. As far as I 

 can judge, it is very inappropriate. When dry, its fur is of a dirty 

 yellowish white ; and a beast of this species lying on a floe has exactly 

 the appearance of a lump of discoloured ice, so that the hunter often 

 takes one for the other. In the water it seems to be much of the 



* Since the above was wriuen, il has occurred to >ne that a considerable collection 

 of shells of Mya iruiicata, which I found one day o;) ibe moraine of a glacier in Safe 

 Haven, may possibly have been due to the causes su[;gesled in the text. 



f I have never seen it remarked, though it is unquestionably the case, that nearly 

 all the Icelandic examples of Canis lagopus are " blue" foxes; that is to say, their 

 winter coat is of nearly ihi-' same colnur as their summer coat. Tliis fact, I thiuk, must 

 be taken in connexion with the comparatively mild climate which Iceland enjoys in 

 winter, and, if so, is aiialofrous to the circum.«.tances of the alpine hare {Lepus limiilus, 

 Linn., non aucl.) always becoming while in winter in Scandinavia, generally so in 

 Scotland, and but seldom in Ireland. The common squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is 

 another case in point; and all three may be considered illustrative of the vexed 

 questions of the specific distinctions between the great northern falcons (Falco gyrfalco, 

 F. candicans, and t". islandicu«) and of the specific identity of the red and willow 

 grouse {Lagoput scolicus and X. albui). 



