FOXES. 
565 
cliffs wherein the Alcidce were nesting one could, by listening almost at any time in 
the twenty-four hours, hear its yapping bark. It is of course the chief enemy of all 
the different kinds of birds, and their dread of it appears to influence them greatly 
in their choice of breeding quarters. What the foxes do to get a living in winter, 
when the birds have left the country, is one of the most curious questions that has 
presented itself to my mind for some time. The greater number of them are said 
to remain on the land and to be as active during the long polar night as they are 
in summer; yet there are no berries by which they might eke out their existence, 
and there can be no open water, on the margin of which they might find food 
within miles of their haunts. The most natural explanation that occurs to one is 
that they lay up a stock of provisions; but nobody, that I am aware of, has ever 
found such a store-closet.” Not only does this fox prey upon the Arctic birds 
themselves, but it also robs their eggs. Dr. Packard, when describing his experiences 
in Northern Labrador, writes that on a certain day “I started up a blue fox, which 
was running towards me with a murre’s [guillemots] egg in his mouth; on my 
throwing a stone at him he dropped his egg and scampered off. I hallooed for 
nearly ten minutes for some one with a gun to come and shoot him, and kept him 
in sight. With more of curiosity than fear he would stop at intervals to look at 
me, keeping a safe distance off and barking, until he disappeared. Soon Mr. W. 
came up; we pursued, finding him on the other side of the island, with another egg 
in his mouth. Mr. W. gave him his death-wound, though he ran some distance 
with the egg between his teeth before he dropped dead. His flanks and belly were 
white, the rest of a slate-blue colour, his legs very long, and tail long though not 
very bushy. The more remarkable features were his short, rounded ears, as if 
cropped.” It is not, however, by any means solely on birds and their eggs that the 
Arctic fox subsists, as in some districts it also preys largely upon the small Rodents 
known as lemmings. In one district during the Arctic Expedition of 1875, under 
Sir G. S. Nares, numbers of dead lemmings were discovered which had been killed 
by these foxes, and hordes of lemmings were pulled out from the crannies of the 
rocks, which had been collected by the foxes as a winter provision ; thus confirming 
Professor Newton’s suggestion as to the probable manner in which these animals 
subsist in winter. 
With the desert-fox (C. leucopus ) of South-Western Asia we 
revert to the foxes of the temperate and tropical regions of the Old 
World. This species is considerably smaller than the common fox, the length of 
the head and body varying from 19 to 22 inches, and that of the tail from 12 to 
16 inches. It agrees, however, with that species in having a small white tip to the 
tail, as it also does in the dark-coloured ears. Moreover, when the full tints are 
developed, this animal is more strikingly coloured than the common species, 
although there is a considerable amount of individual variation in this respect. 
When fully coloured, the fur of the back varies from brownish yellow to rusty 
red, and there is usually a distinct pale patch on each side of the back behind the 
shoulders, in front of which is a dark transverse stripe across them. The sides 
are lighter, while the under-parts generally vary from slaty-grey to blackish, 
the chin, and generally a spot on the chest, being white. In summer the dark 
under-fur is seen through the ordinary hairs, and the whole colour is greyer, the 
