140 



THE ASSE FOX. 



CANIS CHAMA. 



Canis chama, Smith, South -African Quarterly Journal, vol. ii. p. 89 



(1835); Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 81, pi. 17. 

 Fennecus caama, Gray, Catalogue of Carnivorous Mammalia, p. 207. 



THIS long-eared South-African Fox leads us towards the true Fennec 

 (C. zerda), although it is a much larger animal. Of the specimens in 

 the British Museum one is a type of the species, and it is this which 

 has been selected for representation on our Plate XXXIII. 



A living specimen was presented to the Zoological Society in 1875. 

 It came from the diamond-fields in West Griqualand, having been 

 caught near a Dutch Boer's farm there. Other individuals had been 

 seen in the same district. This individual is well figured in the 

 Zoological Society's ' Proceedings.' 



The original description of the species given by Sir Andrew Smith 

 is as follows : 



" Muzzle, centre of face, and top of head yellowish brown, variegated 

 by an intermixture of bristly hairs annulated black and white ; sides 

 of head a uniform whitish yellow ; upper lip, towards angles of mouth, 

 lower lip, and chin blackish brown ; whiskers and edges of eyelids 

 black ; ears large, outer surfaces yellowish red, inner margined with 

 white hairs, elsewhere bare. Woolly hairs of neck and body abundant ; 

 their tips reddish white or yellowish white, elsewhere a dull smoke 

 colour ; bristly hairs abundant on back of neck and centre of back ; 

 on sides, shoulders, and outsides of thighs, less numerous, all annulated 

 black and white ; the tips black. Extremities yellowish white, inclined 

 to white on their anterior surfaces ; a large brownish-black blotch on 

 the posterior surface of each hinder extremity about halfway between 



