EAST APBICAN MAMMA1,8 lH NATIONAL MUSEUM. Ill 



Genns OTOCYON MUlIer. 



1836. Otocyon MtJLLEii, Archiv. Anat. & Phys. Med., p. L. (0. mcAjnlotu.) 

 The great-eared "fox" is ropresentod in the East African colloctions 

 by two closely related forms, which later doubtless will prove, with 

 Otocyon megalotis of South Africa, to be geograpliic races of a single 

 specie.^. 



OTOCYON CANESCENS Cabrera. 



1910. Otocyon canescens Cabrera, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., .stT. s, \ ol. o, p. 462. 

 November. (Biirao, Somaliland; type in British Museum.) 



Specimen. — One imperfect skin from — 

 Abyssinia: Adis Ababa (Philip). 



OTOCYON VIKGATUS Miller. 



Plates 22, 23, 24. 



1892. Otoeyon meyaiotis True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.. vol. 15, p. 455. (Not of 

 Desmarest.) 



1909. Otocyon virgatus Millkr, Smithsonian Mist;. Coll., vol. 52, p. 485. Decem- 



ber 18. (Naivasha Station, British East Africa; type in U. S. Nat. Mus.) 



1910. Otocyon virgatus Roosevelt, African Game Trails, Amer. ed., pp. 473 and 



486; ' London ed., pp. 485 and 497.' 



Specimens. — Seventeen, from localities as follo^vs: 



British East Africa: "'British East Africa," 1 skuU (S. A. Ex.); 

 Engare Narok River, 1 (Rainey) ; Lakiundu River, I (Heller) ; Loita 

 Plains, 1 (Heller); Naivasha Station, 8 (Mearns, Loring); Southern 

 Guaso Nyiro River, 1 (Rainey) ; Taveta, 1 (Abbott) ; Telek River, 1 

 (Rainey). 



German East Africa: Aruscha Wa-cini, 2 (Abbott). 



Mearas and lx)ring record the following weights of specimens 

 collected at Lake Naivasha: Males, old adult (t3r|)e), 8^^ pounds; 

 young adult, 6^ pounds. Females, two adults, eacli 6^ pounds. 

 Doctor Abbott's labels on the specimens from the Kihmanjaro 

 region record the native Kichaga name of the animal as Kiparn. 

 Loring's notes on tlie species at Naivasha are in part as follows: 



All of the specimens secured were taken by "jacking" at night, although, while 

 traveling over the Uganda Railroad, we frequently saw them singly or in pairs in 

 broad daylight. The white people knew nothing of a fox in this country, and had 

 always called them "jackals." They seemed to live in pairs and groups of three to 

 fdx. On dark nights it was usually easy to shine their eyes and approach within 

 shooting range. Often the foxes would slink about for some time before we got within 

 gunshot range. Frequently we saw two and sometimes three and four standing m 

 close together tliat it was surprising that the spread of the shot did not kill more than 

 one. One evening Dr. Mearns and I started out about 9 o'clock and returned about 

 midnight. Most of the hunting was done on an elevated brushy plateau, within 

 short distance of a native village, where the occupants were singing, dancing, and 

 playing their cnide stringed instruments. We ran into a bunch of five of these foxe;- 

 and got four of them, none of which was the young of the year. One fox was killed 



' "i>iToaTtv4.'' 



