168 Dr. N. Severtzoff on the Mammals of Turkestan. 



XVII. — The Mammals of Turkestan. 

 By Dr. N. Severtzoff. 



[Continued from p. 57.] 



59. Lagomys rutilus, n. sp.* 



The summer as well as the winter dress may be described 

 from an adult specimen in change of fur, which was obtained 

 in the end of May in tlie mountains of Vernoe. The winter 

 hair is tolerably long, greyish yellow, with a black admixture 

 commencing from the nape ; the roots of the hair are dark 

 lead-colour. It diifers from L. ru.fescens, Gray, in having no 

 white at all on the head, the middle of the neck, the belly, and 

 the inner sides of the legs ; all these parts are pale yellow 

 {fulvescentes). Sides, tliroat, and the outer side of the legs 

 yellowish brown ; the ears are large, rounded, and covered 

 with harsh yellowish grey hair ; tJie whiskers are 7/elloiv, with 

 a few black hairs among them ; the claws are black. Length 

 8^ inches. 



Summer dress. The whole upper part of the body light fiery 

 brown ; the throat chestnut-colour. 



Young. The upper parts of the body are yellowish grey, 

 yellower than they are in the adult in winter ; the forehead 

 light reddish brown. I obtained an old and a young speci- 

 men in the end of May 1867 in the mountains near Vernoe, 

 at an altitude of about 7000 to 8000 feet. I also got an 

 example in the spring change of dress, previous to the two 

 above mentioned, in the rocks about the river Kara-bur, 

 south of Aulje-ata, in the end of June, about 6500 feet above 

 the sea, consequently further south and lower than the others ; 

 but it was still moulting : this specimen I lost afterwards. 



The full summer dress is apparently attained at different 

 times, from the middle of June until the middle of July. 

 When moulting they are pied, with wide equal spots of the 

 bright reddish brown colour ; these spots, as I remember, were 

 smaller on the Kara-bur specimen than on the one from 

 Vernoe (which is now in the Moscow Museum) ; but in both 

 these patches are very irregular. 



It frequents places covered with juniper trees, and is not 

 particularly watchful, all the three specimens obtained having 

 been shot at very short range. 



* [Cy. tlie recently described Central-Atiian s^ecxQS, Lagomys ladacensis 

 and L. macrotis, Giinther, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, xvi. p. 231 ; 

 L. ai(ritus and L. f/risci/s, Blanford, Journ. Asiat. Sec. Beng. xliv. p. 111. 

 —J]. R.A.I 



