58 
have worn so as to expose the long, blackish nails of the summer condition. The variation 
in time and rate of moulding the winter coat is doubtless largely dependent on the age 
and general condition of the individual. ( See Bull. Mus. Comp. Zook, vol. 62, p. 527 
(1919) ).” 
(d) A specimen taken at Nettilling lake, June 7, has entirely assumed 
the slick, short-haired, summer pelage. Dorsal area is a rich, bluish black, 
broadest and darkest over the upper rump, washed palely with buff and 
peppered with black and white hairs in obscure vermiculations. Sides and 
underparts in abrupt contrast with the dark back, a soft, creamy-buff 
which joins on lower rump above the tail. Darker, rusty-chestnut patch 
on sides of neck above forelegs. This is a strikingly beautiful pelage. 
(e) This typical summer coat is represented by five specimens, almost 
uniform in every particular, taken at Nettilling lake, Amadjuak bay, and 
cape Dorset between June 11 and August 7. The entire upper parts from 
nose to tail, and extending well down the sides, a salt and pepper-like 
greyish buff to brown, the intermixture of whitish hairs giving the back a 
softly grizzled appearance; a rusty patch over the ears and a more or less 
obscure, fine, black median line, which in three specimens extends from 
nose to tail. The underpart, which merges softly into the darker area of 
the back, is pale ochraceous, darkest on the breast. June 11 and 17, 
specimens still retain a portion of the heavy winter claws; the others, taken 
on July 4, August 4, and August 7, respectively, have the fine black nails 
of summer. This lot obviously agrees with the July and August specimens 
described by Allen and Copeland from cape Dorset and Bowdoin harbour. 
“Adults in early July are in almost full summer pelage and a single one from cape 
Dorset, August 15, is not essentially different. They are an almost uniform mixed grey 
and black above, but quite without a distinct median black line. At the sides of the body 
and underneath they are white with a wash of pale ochraceous and there is an ill-defined 
chestnut patch in the ear region. Five skins taken July 1 and 5, at Bowdoin harbour, 
agree closely in this coloration. A young one, about a quarter grown, is a buffy grey 
above with the ear spots a slightly brighter rusty. On the nape there is a short and indis- 
tinct median blackish line which, however, is so mixed with buffy hairs as hardly to be 
noticeable. This reduction of the median black stripe in both young and adult is char- 
acteristic of groenlandicus, for in all the other American forms it is strongly marked.” 
In the case of an immature animal collected at Nettilling lake, June 3, 
the entire upperparts are a uniform, brownish, ashy grey, with no suggestion 
of a median line. The underparts are pale ashy, with a slight suffusion of 
weak buff along sides and over the belly. Another specimen of an immature 
animal, taken on June 23 at the same place, is greyish buff over the entire 
back with a distinct, thin, black median line from nose to tail. Underparts 
ashy-grey with a soft wash of pale buff on sides and breast; face and crown 
browner. This specimen corresponds almost exactly with the pelage of 
the adults in class (e). 
There is, it will be noted, a conspicuous difference between some of 
these specimens and those described by Allen and Copeland who write, 
“The reduction of the median black stripe in both young and adult is 
characteristic of groenlandicus” . This feature, found on the MacMillan 
specimens from southwestern Baffin island, did not hold in the cases of two 
adults and an immature individual from Nettilling lake, and two adults 
from Amadjuak bay, all with full length median lines. 
