146 CANID.E. 



kinds, one larger, the other smaller, but with shorter tails, said to 

 ascend as high as the snow-line, and to be very shy." 



Blyth gives a description of a wild dog from Darjeeling, which he was 

 informed JNIr. Hodgson had considered distinct from the common one. 

 " This one (a female) had a considerably more vulpine aspect, with longer 

 and softer fm*, with much wool at the base, a considerable ruff round the 

 neck, and much lengthened fur about the jowl ; the ears also were densely 

 clad both externally and within. ; and in a living animal from the same 

 locality were closely appi'oximated, and directed forwards ; a remarkably 

 full brush, with much less black than usual on the terminal half, but most 

 of the tail having a nigrescent appearance not particularly noticeable at 

 a little distance. All this may merely indicate the winter vesture as 

 assumed in a cold climate ; but the actions of the living animal wex'e 

 decidedly peciiliar, and the general appearance as vulpine as that of the 

 ordinary wild dog is jackal-like. It was particularly light, agile, and 

 gi-aceful in. its movements ; still I can discover no distinction in the 

 skull, or in the rest of the skeleton, excepting that the metacarpal bones 

 of the Darjeeling specimen are comparatively shorter. Upon present 

 evidence, I can only regard it'as as pecimen of the common wild dog in 

 winter vesture as developed in a cold climate." 



In the late edition of Hodgson's Collection Brit. Museum, 1863, a second 

 species of wild dog is described as Cuon Grayiformis, with the following 

 description : — " Deep uniform red, deeper than rust, paler and flavescent 

 below ; lining of eai's, chaffron, and end of tail nigrescent. Hair close 

 and short, no feathering of limbs nor brush to tail. Form slighter than 

 in other species, and larger — that is in largest dimensions." Length, 

 head and body, 3 feet 1 inch ; tail 16 inches. This was from Darjeeling. 

 It will be observed that this does not tally with Mr. Blyth's description 

 above. Some young wild dogs were brought to Darjeeling whilst I was 

 there, which did not appear to me at the time to differ in any material 

 point fi'om others I had seen in various parts of India. Specimens from 

 the Eastern Ghats perhaps differ moi'e from those of other parts. They 

 have the colour lighter and more fulvous, the tail less brushed and 

 concolorous with the body, or nearly so, and the hair shorter. Those 

 from Coorg and the Malabar forests have the tail blackish and mode- 

 rately bvishy, and closely resemble others from Central India, and one 

 represented in a drawing of Buchanan Hamilton's. Mr. Blyth wrote 

 to me from Madras, stating that some specimens he had seen in the 

 Museum there had rather staggered him as to the unity of the species. 



