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 kahn&ktak; the other entirely white with
the exception of the naked tip of the nose, which is called by the same people
Icakhortak. 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 approaching
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
iarthest 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.