Arctic Animals.

Arctic Animals. The region north of the cultivation of cereals is peopled by a limited and homogeneous fauna. Mammals are represented almost exclusively by ruminants, carnivores, and rodents, such as the Arctic fox, polar bear, ghitton, ermine, sable, walrus, tail-less hare, lemming, reindeer, and musk-ox. Birds are represented especially by the snow-partridges, snowy owl, Iceland falcon, eider-duck, auks, divers, and guillemots. No reptiles can live in the cold of the arctic regions; but fishes, especially Salmonidae, are well represented. Insects and molluscs are fairly numerous. Not a few of the birds and mammals inhabiting these snowy regions exhibit adaptive characters of white colour, thick coats, accumulations of fat, and the like. See GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION; Pennant's Arctic Zoology; and Heilprin's Distribution of Animals (Internat. Sc. Series, 1887).