134 



THE RACCOON-LIKE DOG. 



CANI8 PROCYONOIDES. 



Canis procyonoides, Gray, Illustrations Ind. Zool. vol. ii. plate i. (1834); 



id. Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 578 (1837) ; 



J. A. Wagner, Suppl. to Schreber's Saugth., Abth. ii. 



p. 439 ; Schrenck, Reisen im Amur-Lande, vol. i. p. 53, 



plates3&4 (1859); Radde, Reisen Siiden von Ost-Sibirien, 



vol. i. p. 75, plate 3 (1862). 

 Nyctereutes viverrinus, Temminck, Fauna Japonica, vol. Mammalia, p. 40 



plate 8 (1847) ; Martens, Preussische Expedit. Ost-Asien, 



p. 78, plate i. (1876). 

 Nyctereutes procyonoides, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 522; id. 



Cat. Carnivorous Mammalia, p. 210 (1869) ; Sclater, Proc. 



Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 323, plate 50; Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. 



1878, p. 373. 



THE external appearance of this Dog (Plate XXXII. , from a specimen 

 in the British Museum) is so very peculiar and unlike the aspects of all 

 its congeners, that it is no wonder it should have been placed in a 

 distinct genus, and at first supposed, as it was supposed by Temminck*, 

 to be allied to the raccoon. In reality, however, it is a true dog, as the 

 whole of its anatomy unmistakably proves. At first also it was believed 

 that there were two or more species of Raccoon-like Dogs ; but Schrenck, 

 in his careful and exhaustive account of the form and coloration of this 

 animal, has supplied sufficient evidence that it was impossible to distin- 

 guish distinct kinds. 



The British Museum possesses specimens enough to prove how great 

 is the variation in colour to which the animal is liable, and, indeed, its 

 seasonal changes in this respect were long ago described. But a 



* Op. cit. p. 40. 



