186 



THE NORTHERN DHOLE. 



CYON 4LPINUS. 



Cants alpinus, Pallas, Zoograpbia Rosso-Asiatica, vol. i. p. 34 (1831) ; 

 J. A. Wagner, Suppl. to Schreber's Saugth., Abth. ii.p. 372; 

 Middendorff, Reise aussersten Norden u. Osten Sibiriens, 

 vol. ii. part ii. p. 71 (1851); Scbrenck, Reisen in Amur- 

 Land e, vol. i. p. 48, pi. ii. (1859); Radde, Reisen im 

 Siiden von Ost-Sibirien, vol. i. p. 60 (1862). 



Cuon alpinus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 498 ; id. Cat. Carnivorous 

 Mammalia, p. 184. 



Cyon alpinus, Mivart, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1890, p. 90. 



THIS large, fine species of Northern Asia can only be separated from 

 C. javanicus on account of the larger size of its second upper molar, and 

 also of its second or ultimate lower molar. 



The two specimens preserved in the British Museum are covered 

 with very long and woolly hair, which is white in one specimen, and 

 whitish with a yellow tinge in the other. The former came from 

 Siberia and is the subject of our Plate XLII. ; the other specimen came 

 from the Altai Mountains, and our figure representing its dentition 

 was drawn from the skull which was extracted from it. 



We presume that both these specimens display the winter coat of 

 the animal more or less perfectly developed ; for it is described by 

 Pallas and Schrenck as being at other times generally red like a fox, 

 with the back somewhat darker the hairs being partly white, partly 

 black, and partly red with the lips, belly, and inner side of the 

 limbs white. 



This species is subject, like its more southern congener, to great 

 variations in colour, according to season, locality, and possibly some- 

 what according to sex. 



