198 



THE THOUS OF NUBIA, 



Thous variegatus, 



PLATE XI. 



Is about an inch lower at the shoulder and in other 

 respects proportionably smaller than the last men- 

 tioned animal. The head is rather broad, buff with 

 black hairs on the occiput ; the under fur buff and 

 soft ; the upper coat of hard hair, buff at the roots, 

 then black with a buff ring, and the tip again black 

 and shining : these tips gather together on the sur- 

 face in small pencils or patches, resembling chequer 

 work on a buff ground ; the nose is blunt and black, 

 thence to the eyes pale buff: the ears eight inches 

 ten lines in height, buff on the outside, white within ; 

 under parts dirty white ; tail rather short, chequered 

 like the body, the tip dark. The extremities are 

 long, the hind legs longest; all are buff-coloured; 

 the feet hard, tumid, naked, and the claws blunt. 



This animal has the same wolfish aspect as the 

 anthus. It resides in rocky regions, not burrowing, 

 and feeding on small mammalia and birds. During 

 nonage the colours are less clear, and the coarse hair 

 prevails. In old age the woolly fur predominates, 

 the coarse hair being more scanty, but from the nape 

 of the neck to the tail there is a mane of shining 

 black and considerably leng-thened hair. M. Ruppel 

 observed this species in Nubia and Upper Egypt. 



