90 
ARCTIC FOX. 
a pleasing appearance ; legs, rather long than otherwise, and muscular ; 
feet, armed with pretty strong, long, compressed, and slightly arched 
claws ; soles of the feet, covered with dense woolly hair ; body covered 
with two kinds of hair, the longer thinly distributed and fine, the shorter 
a remarkably fine straight wool or dense fur ; on the tail and lower parts 
of the body the long hairs are similar to those on the body, and the wool 
or fur like that of the finest wool of the merino sheep. The tail is thick, 
round, and bushy, and shorter than that of the red Pox. 
The shoulders and thighs are protected by long fur, but the anterior- 
parts of the legs are covered with short hair, the hind legs having the 
shortest and smoothest coat. 
COLOUR. 
In winter every part of this animal is white, except the tip of the nose 
the nails and eyes. Eyes, hazle ; tip of nose, black ; nails, brownish. 
The hairs of the animal are all white from the roots to the tips. 
We have, however, seen specimens in which the colour was not pure 
white, but rather a bluish or brownish-gray tint at the roots on the back 
shoulders and outside of the thighs, but particularly on the neck and tail. 
The proportion of the fur so coloured varies with the season of the year as 
well as with different individuals of the species. Sometimes it is confined 
to a small space at the roots of the hair, whilst in other cases the dingy 
colour is so widely spread as to tarnish the customary whiteness of the 
whole skin. 
At almost all times the short hair clothing the posterior surface and 
margin of the ears, is dark brownish-gray for half its length from the roots, 
so as to give a bluish or brownish tinge to view when the hairs are blown 
apart. 
Summer peiage. 
In the month of May, when the snow begins to disappear, the long white 
hairs and fur fall off, and are replaced by shorter hair, which is more or 
less coloured. A specimen killed at York factory on Hudson’s Bay, in 
August, is described by Mr. Sabine as follows : “ The head and chin are 
brown, having some fine white hairs scattered through the fur ; the ears 
externally are coloured like the head ; within they are white ; a similar 
brown colour extends along the back to the tail, and from the back is con- 
tinued down the outside of all the legs ; the whole of the under parts, and 
the insides of the legs, are dingy white. The tail is brownish above, 
becoming whiter at the end, and is entirely white beneath.” 
