564 CARNIVORES. 
illustration. Moreover, occasionally, pure white foxes are to be met with in summer. 
In Iceland, where the winter is less severe than in the more northerly regions, the 
winter dress of the Arctic fox is nearly similar to the summer one, so that these 
animals are “blue” at all seasons. 
The assumption of a white dress im winter is in order to assimilate the colour 
of the animal to that of the snow-fields among which it dwells, and it is somewhat 
difficult to understand why the change does not invariably take place in the more 
ARCTIC FOX, IN WINTER DRESS (< nat. size). 
northern regions. The hair clothing the soles of the feet is to aid the creature in 
obtaiming a sure foothold on frozen snow and ice. 
According to Richardson, Arctic foxes, which were formerly abundant on the 
shores of Hudson’s Bay, dwelt there in small colonies of from twenty to thirty 
burrows each. During the autumn and winter such of these foxes as inhabit the 
more northern districts of Arctic America undertake a southerly migration, keeping 
as much as possible to the coasts, and the length of the migration depending to a 
considerable extent whether the line of the coast coincides with the line of march. 
The Arctic fox preys largely upon birds, especially upon various members of the 
auk family, as we learn from Professor A. Newton, who writes, that “the Arctic 
fox is pretty numerous along the shores of the Ice Sound [Spitzbergen]; and we 
not only frequently saw examples of it, but in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
