fe 
_MAMMALOGY OF THE HIMALAYAS, lxix 
the greatest importance to our inquiries into the principles which regulate the geographical distribution 
of animals, is entirely due to Dr. Royle, and furnishes another, and a most glaring instance of the para- 
mount influence of climate upon the dispersion of animals, as well as of vegetables. Unfortunately, the 
only skin which Dr. Royle has brought to England, is too imperfect to admit of so detailed a description 
as would be desirable. The skull has been taken out, (it is now in the Museum of University Col- 
lege, and, Professor Grant informs me, exhibits the same form of dentition as the other species of 
Lagomys described by Drs. Pallas and Richardson), and the hind legs cut off, but in other respects it is 
in a sufficiently good state of preservation to enable me to assign its specific characters. I propose, 
under the specific denomination of Lagomys Roylii, to dedicate it to my friend Dr. Royle, in comme- 
moration of the important service which that distinguished Botanist has rendered by its discovery to 
the kindred science of Zoology, v. Tab. 4, where the animal and its dentition are figured. 
The L. Roylit more nearly resembles the Sulgan (L. pusillus, Pallas), and the American species 
(L. princeps, Richardson), than either the Pica or Ogotona (L. alpinus and Ogotona of Pallas). With 
the exception of the Pica, however, it is considerably larger than any other species of Lagomys : the skin 
here described, notwithstanding its imperfect state—for the hinder parts have been partially mutilated, 
measuring eight and a half inches in length, which is more than one-third as large again as the 
Ogotona, Sulgan or American species. From the Ogotona, however, it is easily distinguished by its 
colours, which, in that species, are light grey above and pure white beneath, as well as by its naked 
soles. The triangular form of the ears in L. pusillus, prevents that animal from being confounded with 
any other species, and the Pica (L. alpinus), which alone approaches the size of L. Roylii, is at once 
distinguished by the sandy red colour of its fur. The L. princeps of Dr. Richardson is the only 
remaining species of the genus at present known; it is very similar to our animal in the colour and 
quality of the fur, but may be readily distinguished by its inferior size, and by the deep black hair 
which covers the external surface of its ears, and which is replaced in L. Roylii by long fur of a pure 
white colour. 
The fur of this species is of two kinds, a very soft and fine internal one of a beautiful blue black over 
every part of the head and body, as well above as below, and a coarser external kind, of the same colour 
at the base, but afterwards marked with a broad ring of a greyish yellow colour, and finally tipped with 
dark brown. These two kinds of fur, however, are not produced by an actual difference in the indivi- 
dual hairs; on the contrary, the same hairs exhibit both the appearances here described, being extremely 
soft and fine at the root, and assuming a harsh and rigid structure towards the extremity. These harsh 
tips, being the only parts of the fur seen from without, give their general colour to the whole body. On 
the upper parts of the body, the head, back and sides, this is uniform brown, slightly mixed with 
yellowish grey, very dark on the back, much more so, for instance, than in the common Rat (M. 
Decumanus), but rather paler on the sides, and yellowish white on the belly; the hairs on this part 
wanting the harsh brown point, though in other respects perfectly similar to those of the back. The fur 
on the body is about an inch in length, and nearly as long on the head, which gives the face a rough 
shaggy appearance. The nose is entirely covered with short harsh hair of a uniform brown colour ; the 
upper lip is bilobed as in the Hare; the ears are of an elliptical form with regularly rounded tops, 
covered internally with very short brown hair, and on the outside with long white hair at the base, and 
short brown at the top, the posterior edges having a scarcely perceptible narrow white border. They 
are about half an inch broad and three quarters of an inch in length, with a small internal lobe about a 
quarter of an inch long, and have the folding inwards of the anterior margin, and, consequently, the | 
resulting funnel shape of their basal portions, which Pallas noticed in the species of Northern Asia. — 
2 Dr. Richardson could observe nothing of this appearance in his L. princeps, but I presume this must 
ns in a part so liable to be injured, since an individual 
have arisen from the imperfect state of his specime 
