90 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
Otho Fabricius gives a clear account of the sooty variety of the Arctic fox 
in the following passage :—‘‘ There are two kinds of Arctic fox,” says he: “ one 
bluish-black, with white wool on the soles of the feet, and occasionally white 
whiskers, is named by the Greenlanders keknektak ; the other entirely white with 
the exception of the naked tip of the nose, which is called by the same people 
hakkortak, They are by no means different species, for they couple together ; 
and one variety produces young having the colours of the other; nay, I can 
even bear witness that the bluish individual will become white, and a white one 
bluish, according to its age.” 
Pennant considers the Sooty Fox to be a distinct species which is numerous in 
Iceland ; and Sir George Mackenzie describes it as varying considerably in the 
shades of its fur, from a light brownish, or bluish-gray, to a colour nearly ap- 
proaching to black. He quotes the authority of Horrebow for their being 
brought from Greenland to Iceland occasionally on fields of ice. The Greenland 
fox, No. 164 of Pennant’s History of Quadrupeds, described as of a brown 
colour above, white beneath, with feet furred beneath, rounded ears, and as 
being of very small stature, seems to be nothing more than a young Arctic fox 
in its common autumn dress. 
On one occasion during our late coasting voyage round the northern extremity 
of America, after cooking our supper on a sandy beach, we had retired to repose 
in the boats, anchored near the shore, when two Sooty Foxes came to the spot 
where the fire had been made, and carrying off all the scraps of meat that were 
left there, buried them in the sand above high-water mark. We observed that 
they hid every piece in a separate place, and that they carried the largest pieces 
farthest off. A little Scotch terrier dog that accompanied us had precisely the 
same habit. It attended us closely at our meals; and receiving much more 
from the men than it could eat, it carried the surplus always to the distance of 
two or three hundred yards, and hid it carefully, never putting two pieces in the 
same spot. I have quoted in page 86, Captain Lyon’s observation of the Arctic 
fox seldom eating its food until it had been adapted to its taste by concealment. 
——_— 
