The Zoologist — November, 1873. 3769 



instead. Neither he nor the slneman were aware before I told them 

 that no wolf has ever been killed in Spitsbergen. 



Cants lagopus. — We met with black foxes in several localities ; 

 one at Fair Haven, another in Wiide Bay (which was chasing a hen 

 ptarmigan), a iew in Lomrae Bay, and several in Magdalena Bay. 

 A cub, from Lomme Bay, was given to Mr. Smith by the master of 

 a Norwegian smack, who succeeded in smoking four out of an 

 earth : of these two were brownish, the other black. We found in 

 Wiide Bay that foxes are fond of gnawing at the tips of velvet- 

 covered antlers of dead deer. I believe they sometimes gnaw off 

 the points of cast antlers; for I saw many which were defective, 

 and whose points seemed to have been nibbled away. We were 

 led to suspect, with Prof Newton, that these foxes lay up in the 

 autumn a store of birds for the winter : unless they do so, it is hard 

 to imagine how they can subsist until the return of the birds in May. 

 Ptarmigan, it is true, are not uncommon, and remain in the country 

 throughout the year ; but foxes are plentiful in places where ptar- 

 migan are never found. If they do lay by a stock of provisions, it 

 is no doubt composed largely of sandpipers, snow buntings and 

 skuas, as well as ptarmigan, all these birds being more addicted 

 than any others in Spitsbergen to flapping on the ground as if they 

 were disabled whenever they have the least excuse for doing so. 

 Whilst they are intent upon engaging the fox's attention by their 

 violent struggles, he suddenly springs upon them, and if they rise, 

 jumps after them into the air, and they cannot always get out of 

 his reach in time. In the case alluded to at the commencement of 

 this paragraph, the ptarmigan kept within a yard or two of the 

 fox, barely evading his repeated sallies for several minutes. We 

 hastened to the spot, but he disappeared with her before we could 

 get there. 



PhocidxB. — There is little to be said about the four species of 

 seals which inhabit Spitsbergen. Some of each kind were killed 

 by our party. The crew applied names at haphazard to young 

 examples. Very small ones of any sort were termed "floe rats," 

 provided that they were not evidently " whitey-coats" {Pagophilus 

 grainlandicus, first year). Seals of a slightly larger size, but not 

 full grown, if they were dark above and whitish beneath, gave 

 occasion to a fair amount of controversy : some of the hands would 

 maintain that these were young " saddle-backs" (P. groenlandicus); 

 others would be positive that they were nothing but young " ground 



