448 Zoological Society : — 



The following description has been taken from the specimen from 

 Shanghai ; and I may observe, that a specimen in my own collection, 

 also from China (Kiang), is similar, but with the colours even 

 brighter. As these examples differ from those already described in 

 a few particulars only, save in colour, it will be necessary to mention 

 merely these points of difference, and the remarkable colouring of 

 the fur of this variety — if it is not a distinct species : — 



Ears ovoid, nearly the length of the head, and more deeply and 

 evenly notched near the middle of the outer margin than in the 

 ordinary examples of V. foi-mosiis ; tragus very narrow and tapering 

 to a very acute point, curved a little outwards. The extreme tip of 

 the tail free. 



On all parts of the body the fur is thick and cottony, with very 

 little gloss. That of the upper parts tricoloured, excepting on the 

 head, where it is bicoloured. On the latter part it is buff at the 

 base, tipped with very bright rufous ; on the whole of the back it is 

 blackish grey at the base, succeeded by huffy yellow, and finally 

 tipped with bright rufous. The rufous colour is brightest on the 

 head and shoulders, from which parts it becomes darker and less 

 pure on approaching the rump. The hair which extends on to the 

 base of the interfemoral membrane is unicoloured, and dark red- 

 brown. On the whole of the under parts, the fur is bicoloured ; that 

 of the throat resembles that on the top of the head, being huffy 

 yellow, tipped for about a fourth of its length with bright red. 

 Along each side of the body, from the insertion of the humerus to 

 the pubal region, it is similar to the throat ; but the rufous colour 

 occupies more than half the length of the fur. Along the middle 

 of the belly it is dusky at the base, similarly tipped with a deep and 

 brilliant rufous colour. 



The membranes are very conspicuously marked with two colours, 

 brown-red and black. The latter colour may be called the real co- 

 lour of the wings ; but a narrow space on each side of all the bones 

 is of the former ; of this brown-red colour also is the whole of the 

 interfemoral membrane and the membrane between the index finger 

 and the longest. Beneath the fore-arm, and from thence by the 

 side of the body to the hinder limb, the red colour is of consider- 

 able breadth, attaining to as much as three-quarters of an inch. 

 From this space it runs in dotted lines into the black colour of the 

 wing, and produces great richness of appearance. The ears are red- 

 brown, tipped and margined exteriorly with black. The feet also 

 are black ; but the legs and all the bones of the wing are of the same 

 red colour as the contiguous membrane. 



In the annexed table of dimensions, column No. 1 represents Mr. 

 Hodgson's specimen in the British Museum, No. 2 the specimen in 

 the East India Company's Museum, No. 3 the Shanghai specimen, 

 and No. 4 the one from Kiaug. 



