STEPPE-FOX. 21 г 



these wolves ; the gun was lying a little distance off 

 with one barrel exploded, the trigger having evi- 

 dently struck against a rock as they hauled it along ; 

 the cartridges were completely gone. Yet with all 

 his impudence this wolf is so wary that he will never 

 allow a man to come near him during the day, and re- 

 course must be had to artifice to kill him ; for such is 

 his tenacity of life, that unless shot through a vital 

 part he will escape. We lost a great deal of time in 

 trying to secure one of their skins, and at last I suc- 

 ceeded in killing one by lying in ambush behind the 

 carcase of a kulan. 



We tried watching at night by the side of a slain 

 yak, but although we wounded several, they always 

 managed to get away. In Northern Tibet, had we 

 possessed strychnine or traps, we might have killed 

 any number of them. 



Their breeding season is January, when they are 

 never more than ten or fifteen in a pack. They utter 

 a short sharp bark like a dog. 



The fox is rare in Northern Tibet, but the closely- 

 allied steppe-fox {Canis Corsac\ called by the Mon- 

 gols kiarsa, is more common. 



This sagacious animal is distributed over the 

 whole of Mongolia, Kan-su, Koko-nor, and Tsaidam, 

 but is most numerous on the plains round Koko- 

 nor, where it finds an abundance of marmots, — its 

 chief food. 



Owing to its excessive wariness I was unable to 

 study its habits. On seeing a man a long way off, it 



P 2 



