108 MAMMALIA. 



of the hairs white, except on the ears, shoulders, and tail, where 

 they are of a pure black. The end of the tail is all white. From 

 North America. Its fur is most beautiful, and very costly. 



C. lagopus, L. ; Schreb. XCIII. (The Blue Fox or Isatis.) 

 Deep ash-colour; the under surface of the toes hairy;(l) often 

 white in winter. From the north of both continents, particu- 

 larly from Norway and Siberia ; much esteemed for its fur. 



C. mesomelas,(2) Schreb. XCV. (The Cape Fox.) Fawn- 

 coloured on the flanks ; middle of the nose black, mixed with 

 white, terminating in a point behind ; the ears red as well as 

 the feet; the two posterior thirds of the tail black, &c. 

 The interior of Africa produces Foxes remarkable for the size of 

 their ears, and the strength of the hairs of their mustachios ; they 

 are the Megalotis of Illiger. There are two known, the 



C. megalotis, Lalande ; a Cape species, something smaller 

 than our common Fox, higher on its feet ; yellowish grey above, 

 "syhitish beneath; the feet, tail and a dorsal line black. 



C. zerda, Gm., or Fennec of Bruce ; Buff. Supp. Ill, xix. 

 Ears still larger ; a small species of an almost white fawn co- 

 lour, which burrows in the sands of Nubia ;(3) its hair is 

 woolly, and extends under the toes. 

 Finally, we may place after the Dogs, as a fourth subgenus, dis- 

 tinguished by the number of toes, which is four to each foot, the 



Hysenavenatica, Bursch. ; H. picta, Temm., An. Gen. des Sc. 

 Phys. III. (The Wild Dog of the Cape.) It has the dental 

 system of the Dog and not that of the Hyena ; a long and thin 

 form ; the fur mottled, with white and fawn colour, grey and 

 black ; size of the Wolf, large ears with black tips, &c. It is 

 gregarious, and frequently approaches Cape Town, devastating 

 its environs. 



ViVERRA. 



The Civets have three false molars above and four below, the an- 

 terior of which sometimes fall out ; two tolerably large tuberculous 

 teeth above, one only below, and two tubercles projecting forwards 

 on the inner side of the inferior carnivorus, the rest of that tooth 



(1) Several of the Foxes, and even the common one, have hair under then- 

 feet in the north. 



(2) Gmelin has confounded it with the riclive of BufTon, \Ahich is a factitious spe-. 

 cies, and does not differ fromtlic .lackid. 



(3) Bruce's figure, copied by lUiffon, and subsequently by all his compi- 

 lers, greatly exaggerates the size of the ears. We have at last a good figure 

 and exact description of this animal in the Voy. of Ruppel, Zoolog. pi. iii. 



