320 : : THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Myodes torquatus.— This species of Lemming was found in 
great abundance along the western shores of Smith Sound, and 
was traced by our explorers to the eighty-third degree of north 
latitude and to the extreme western point attained. On the 
Greenland shore it was found at Thank God Harbour by members 
of our Expedition, where it had previously been obtained by 
Dr. Bessels, and traces of it were noticed by our sledge parties 
who travelled along the northern shores of Greenland. There can 
be no doubt that the eastern migration of this animal has been 
across Robeson Channel and around the north coast of Greenland 
to Scoresby Sound on the east coast, from which locality this 
animal was brought by Captain Scoresby in 1822. Apparently its 
southern range on the west coast of Greenland is stopped by the 
great Humboldt glacier. This Lemming is a great wanderer: we 
found it on the floes of Robeson Channel at considerable distances 
from land, sometimes in a very exhausted state, but generally dead. 
lts habit of leaving the shore and wandering over the ice fully 
accounts for the skeleton of one of this species being found on a floe 
in latitude 81° 45’N., sixty miles from Spitzbergen, by Sir J.C. Ross 
during Parry’s memorable attempt to reach the North Pole in 1827. 
The peculiar formation of the claws in this species is not per- 
manent; that is to say, it is to a considerable extent seasonal. 
During the greater part of the year, when the ground is covered 
with snow, and the animal has to seek its food below the surface 
of the snow, the claws on the fore-feet attain a great development, 
and are used in burrowing through the snow. By the month of 
July, when large areas are bared of snow, and the Lemming, 
feeding on plants in the open, seeks shelter under rocks or by 
scratching holes in the earth, the lower portion of the nail on the 
fore-foot becomes obliterated, either being worn by contact against 
the bard earth or else gnawed off by the animal. The young have 
sharp-pointed claws on their fore-feet, and from an examination 
of a large series of adults of both sexes I find that the summer 
alteration in the shape of the claw is the same in both sexes. 
The month of March was the earliest date by which we had 
sufficient light to enable us to secure these animals, and at that 
season their coats were white on the outside, changing to slate- 
blue underneath. The food of this Lemming consists of vegetable 
substances, especially the buds of Savxifraga oppositifolia. »Lt 
makes nests of grass in the suow, which we often found during 
