PUTOBIUS. 163 



b. Tail-tip not darker. 



a'. A pale median dorsal stripe P. strigidorws, p. 170, 



5'. No dorsal stripe. 



a". Nose white P. canigula, p. 167, 



b". Nose the same colour as forehead. 

 a. Back dark reddish brown .... P. cathia, p. 169. 

 (3. Back light brown P. alpinus, p. 168, 



79. Putorius larvatns. The Tibetan Polecat. 



Putorius larvatus, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. xviii, p. 447, pis. xi, xii (1849). 

 Putorius tibetanus, Horsfidd, Cat. p. 105. 



Tail without hair less than half the length of the head and body. 

 Fur long, with much woolly underfur. Long hair between the 

 toes greatly concealing the naked toe-pads. Metatarsus thickly 

 furred. Claws sharp. 



The skull figured by Hodgson, the only one of the Tibetan form 

 known, is immature, the sutures being all open, although the denti- 

 tion is adult. The hamular process of each pterygoid bone, which 

 in P. fcetidus, the common European polecat, is much curved out- 

 wards, in the skull of P. larvatus is but slightly curved, and is in 

 contact with a process projecting forwards from the anterior portion 

 of the bulla, as in P. sarmaticus. The upper true molar is dumbbell- 

 shaped, the inner lobe being broader than the outer. 



Colour. Above dirty whitish or fulvous with a black wash, 

 especially between the shoulders and on the hinder part of the 

 back, owing to the long black tips on some of the longer hairs. 

 Underfur whitish throughout. Part of the face between the eyes 

 brown (perhaps black or blackish, as described by Hodgson, in fresh 

 specimens), the tip of the nose and the chin white. The throat, 

 breast, all the limbs, the groin, and the tail except near the base 

 blackish brown, abdomen whitish. 



Dimensions. Hodgson gives the following : head and body 14 to 

 16 inches, tail with hair at the end 7, without 6, planta with nails 

 2| (in another 3|). 



Distribution. A specimen was procured by Captain (now General) 

 Strachey in Ladak, others by Hodgson from the Utsang district of 

 Tibet north of Sikhim. 



Habits. Probably precisely the same as those of the common 

 European polecat, which is particularly distinguished amongst the 

 weasel tribe for the evil odour generated by the secretion of its 

 anal glands, whence its name of foumart or foul marten. It lives 

 in woods and thickets, often near human habitations. P. larvatus 

 probably inhabits a less wooded country and hides, like many other 

 species of martens and weasels, amongst stones. The common 

 polecat is very sanguinary and bold, and singularly destructive to 

 game and poultry : it also feeds on frogs and toads. The period of 

 gestation is about 9 weeks, the young, usually 5 to 7 in number, 

 are born about April, in hollow trees or amongst rocks or stones. 

 The common ferret is a domesticated variety of the polecat. 



M2 



