THE TUNDRA AND ITS FAUNA 23 



polar, but does not extend so far to the north as the 

 other species. 



In the tundra, as elsewhere, the presence of large 

 herbivores naturally attracts their enemies the large 

 carnivores, necessarily fewer in number, and usually of 

 greater intelligence. As masterful and highly organized 

 animals the large carnivores do not as a rule show 

 a very close adaptation to one type of country only, 

 nor are they, as a rule, like such herbivorous animals 

 as the musk-ox, driven by stress of competition to the 

 unfavourable parts of the surface. The carnivores 

 which occur in the tundra, therefore, do not as a rule 

 form an integral part of its fauna ; rather are they 

 intruders from other regions. Thus the wolf (Ganis 

 lupus), absent in Greenland, in Spitsbergen, &c., occurs 

 in Arctic Asia and Arctic America, and extends also 

 into such regions as Grinnell Land and King Oscar 

 Land. Its near ally, the Eskimo dog, is a very impor- 

 tant animal in Greenland and elsewhere. Very in- 

 sufficiently fed by its master, the catholicity of its 

 appetite may be gathered from the fact that it will eat 

 fish, sheU-fish, seaweed, and refuse. 



Much more truly Arctic than the wolf is the Arctic 

 fox {Ganis lagojms), widely distributed in the polar 

 regions of both the Old and New Worlds. Its food con- 

 sists of birds, especially the ptarmigan, but it is con- 

 strained to add to this refuse and even seaweed. 

 Lemmings are also an important part of its diet where 

 they occur, and by some it is believed to store the 

 bodies of these for the winter, when it is often hard- 

 pressed. Two other land carnivores occur in the tundra, 

 but both are immigrants from their natural home 

 further south. These are the ermine (Mustela erminea), 

 which follows the lemming to the coasts of the Arctic 



