46 Vallentin, Notes on the Falkland Islands. 



rusty-red colour ; the young animals being always light 

 red." These " foxes " always lived in burrows, which 

 were never very deep, and invariably made in the side of 

 a sand-hill. This habit of burrowing in sand-hills seems 

 to have been for warmth and dryness ; peat-banks being 

 invariably wet. The most important fact concerning 

 these burrows was that they communicated with each 

 other. This is of great interest, for it points to a social 

 habit on the part of these quadrupeds which is I believe 

 unique. Once Mr. W. Stickney found three young cubs 

 of this species, not many days old, comfortably coiled up, 

 as if for mutual warmth in a partially decayed Bogbalsam 

 {Bolax glebaria). His first impulse was to take them 

 home and keep them as pets, for they were very pretty and 

 playful; but owing to the distance to his house, and being 

 on horseback, he was compelled to alter his decision, and 

 so they were destroyed. Up to the time of the importa- 

 tion of sheep, these foxes according to Fitzroy^ . . . "fed 

 upon birds, rabbits, rats, mice, eggs, seals, &c., and to 

 their habits of attacking King-Penguins, if not seals while 

 alive, I presume that a part of their unhesitating approach 

 to man may be traced." They were, however, never 

 numerous, for Mr. Stickney informed me that thirty foxes 

 is the largest number ever killed by a single person in a 

 year. I think the main reason why these quadrupeds 

 were never numerous was the scarcity of food. Pen- 

 guins, seals, birds, and other large creatures could 

 easily find secure shelter and rest from these free- 

 booters, especially during the breeding season, on the 

 numerous islands ; and so they would only have ..." rats 

 and mice and such small deer" to fall back on ; thus their 

 means of subsistence till the advent of the sheep-farmer 

 must have been a precarious one. It is certainly most 

 striking how quickly these foxes changed their method of 



