486 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. ^2 



more brownish between fore legs ; axillary region pale cream-bnff in 

 rather noticeable contrast ; crown from between ears to between eyes 

 a light indefinite grizzled gray, contrasting slightly with region be- 

 hind it and conspicuously with the dark hair-brown of muzzle, fore- 

 head, upper eyelid (about 3 mm.) and upper half of cheek; lower 

 half of cheek nearly like crown, but with a slight bufify tinge; chin 

 dark hair-brown at extreme front, then blackish to a little behind 

 angle of mouth ; outer surface of ear between ochraceous-buff and 

 wood-brown at base, darkening abruptly to a dark sepia on terminal 

 third, the extreme tip blackish ; margin of ear Texcept at blackish 

 tip) pale cream-bufif, a sprinkling of hairs of the same color on inner 

 surface ; fore legs ochraceous-buf¥, heavily clouded with sepia on 

 outer surface, and darkening to blackish on feet : hind legs ochrace- 

 ous-bufif on inner surface, grizzled like sides externally, but more 

 clouded with black, especially along anterior region of juncture be- 

 tween grizzled and ochraceous-buff areas ; hind feet blackish, the 

 soles tinged with ochraceous-buff; tail ochraceous-buff, grizzled like 

 back at extreme base above, elsewhere essentially clear except for 

 the black tip (about 80 mm.) and the sharply defined black dorsal 

 stripe about 25 mm. wide extending from black terminal area to 

 about base of middle third of tail, where it abruptly ends. 



Skull: As compared with that of Otocyon megalotis as figured by 

 Huxley- the skull of 0. virgatiis (plates lx— lxii) shows no special 

 peculiarities in general form. The audital bulla is, however, less 

 globular in outline, and its lower border does not descend so far 

 below level of paroccipital process and glenoid surface. The mandi- 

 ble on the other hand differs strikingly from that of O. megalotis in 

 the complete absence of a re-entrant notch between angular and sub- 

 angular processes, the subangular region thus much resembling that 

 of Urocyon except for its greater development backward so that its 

 posterior edge lies below articular surface instead of below middle 

 of coronoid process. Angular process apparently less curved upward 

 than in O. megalotis. Coronoid process broad and relatively low. 

 its posterior border sloping distinctly forward instead of nearly 

 perpendicular. 



Teeth: Though in general agreeing with those of the southern 

 animal the teeth of Otocyon virgatus show certain peculiarities ; pm.., 

 without trace of the "sharp cusp at the anterior end of its base" 

 mentioned by Huxley (p. 260) ; m^ much less reduced than that of 

 O. megalotis, its elements exactly as in m^. It is also worthy of 



Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, pp. 257-258 and 263. 



