GRAY AND ARCTIC FOXES 
itself with food by its own cunning tricks, while the red fox 
must wander over many miles of country. The ground-breed- 
ing game birds and waterfowl and their eggs form its principal 
fare, perhaps, in summer, when hens or turkeys straying in the 
woods are likely to be seized; but rarely is the poultry disturbed 
on the home roost, nor can such worse depredations as killing 
young pigs, lambs, etc., be laid at its door. Audubon, whose 
account of this to him very familiar animal is circumstantial, 
speaks of it as a “pilfering thief” and of the red fox as a “daring 
and cunning plunderer.” Gray foxes will run before hounds 
only a short distance, doubling constantly and for a short time, 
when they either “hole” in a tree or climb one; while a red 
fox may run straight eight or ten miles away and then back in 
a parallel course. 
Extremely interesting is the arctic fox, of the polar regions 
right round the world. It is a shy, swift little beast with blunt 
nose, short rounded ears, a very long bushy tail, arctic or 
and the soles of its feet well shod with moccasins Blue Foxes. 
of hair, giving them a firm hold on the slippery rocks, snow, 
and ice, over which it leaves its tiny tracks from Labrador to 
the Lincoln Sea. Every arctic explorer from Steller ** down 
has had much to say of this animal, the accounts given by 
Richardson,'* Feilden,?” and Nelson *” being especially full 
and good. The most remarkable feature of its history relates 
to its vatying phases of coloration. During the short arctic 
summer its dress is brown with the under parts lighter, often 
drab. In autumn this coat is replaced by one of pure white, 
beneath which is a fine wool; and this warm, white dress, 
invisible against the snow, is the normal winter hue of the 
great majority of arctic foxes. A small proportion, however, 
are never either white or dark brown, but are slate-gray all the 
year round. This double phase may occur anywhere, one or 
two, perhaps, arising from a litter that becomes white; but in 
some rather southerly places the “blues” prevail, forming a 
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