TWO FASHIONABLE FURS 213 
a white winter livery ; and if it is essential for these species 
that they should assimilate their colour to that of their 
surroundings, why is it not equally so in the case of the 
Arctic fox? 
Again, although, as already mentioned, blue foxes are 
rare in Labrador, in\Alaska they are comparatively common, 
and the same is the case in Greenland, whence the Royal 
Greenland Company imported 1,451 skins to Copenhagen in 
1891. And if it be essential for animals to turn white in 
winter in any country in the world, it is surely Alaska. It 
is difficult to ascertain the proportion of blue to white foxes 
in either Alaska or the Pribiloff Islands, but it is certain 
that in both localities the two phases are found together, 
living apparently under precisely the same physical con- 
ditions. 
As regards the islands Jast named, Mr. Elliot, in his 
work on ‘The Seal Islands of Alaska,” writes that ‘“ blue 
and white foxes are found on the Pribiloff Islands, and 
find among the countless chinks and crevices in the 
basaltic formation comfortable holes and caverns for their 
accommodation and retreat, feeding upon sick and pup 
seals, as well as water-fowl and eggs, during the summer 
and autumn, and living through the winter on dead seals 
left on the rookeries and their carcases on the killing- 
grounds.” 
This account, then, fully establishes the fact that blue 
and white foxes occur in regions where, according to all 
accepted rules, there ought to be none but white in- 
dividuals during the long and dreary winter. It gives, 
however, no definite clue to the reason for the strange 
association. 
There is, however, a description of the habits of Arctic 
foxes in Grinnell Land given by Colonel Fielden, in his 
