244 MamMatiaA OF INDIA. 
It also, like the jackal, will eat fruit, such as melons, ber, &c., and 
herbs. It breeds in the spring, from February to April, and has four 
cubs. Jerdon says the cubs are seldom to be seen outside their earth 
till nearly full grown. It is much coursed with greyhounds, and gives 
most amusing sport, doubling constantly till it gets near an earth; but 
it has little or no smell, so its scent does not lie. 
Sir Walter Elliot wrote of it in the Madras Journal of Literature and 
Science (vol. x. p. 102): “Its principal food is rats, land-crabs, 
grasshoppers, beetles, &c. On one occasion a half-devoured mango was 
found in the stomach. It always burrows in open plains, runs with 
great speed, doubling like a hare; but instead of stretching out at first 
like that animal, and trusting to its turns as a last resource, the fox turns 
more at first ; and, if it can fatigue the dogs, it then goes straight away.” 
It is easily tamed if taken young, and is very playful, but Jerdon, in 
repeating the assertion that tame foxes sooner or later go mad, says 
he has known one or two instances where they have done so; but 
McMaster throws doubt on this, and puts the supposed madness down 
to excitement at the amorous season. He gives an interesting account 
ofa pair kept bya friend, which lived on amicable terms with his 
greyhounds. The owner writes: ““I sometimes took them on to the 
parade ground, and slipped a couple of greyhounds after them. They 
never ran far, as when tired they lay down on their backs, and were at 
once recognised by the dogs. On one occasion one fox was tired 
before the other, and after he had made friends with the dogs he joined 
them in the chase after the other.” 
No. 251. VULPES LEUCOPUS. 
The Desert Fox ( Jerdon’s No. 139). 
Hapitat.—Northern India, and also on the Western Coast about 
Cutch. 
DescripTion-—“ Light fulvous on the face, middle of back and upper 
part of tail; cheeks, sides of neck and body, inner side, and most of the 
fore parts of the limbs, white ; shoulder and haunch, and outside of the 
limbs nearly to the middle joint, mixed black and white ; tail darker at 
the base above, largely tipped with white ; lower parts nigrescent ; ears 
black posteriorly; fur soft and fine as in VM montanus, altogether 
dissimilar from that of V. Bengalensis. The skull with the muzzle 
distinctly narrower, and the lower jaw weaker. One I killed at 
Hissar had the upper parts fulvous, the hair black-tipped; sides paler ; 
whole lower parts from the chin, including the inside of ‘the arm and 
thigh, blackish; feet white on the inner side anteriorly, with a 
blackish border on the anterior limbs ; legs fulvous externally ; all feet 
white ; tail always with a white tip. "Jor don. 
