THE NEPAL FOX. 241 



and upper surface of the tail are not blackened by 

 the tips of the longer hairs, but of a chocolate-brown 

 mixed with grisly; the cheeks, shoulders, flanks 

 and legs are bufl&sh yellow ; the anterior part of the 

 fore limbs, and of the tarsi and feet, sooty ; the out- 

 side of the ears of the same colour, the inside, the 

 region round the muzzle, chin, breast and belly, 

 white mixed with ashy ; the cubs are of a dirty 

 fawn colour, seldom exceeding four in number. The 

 coal fox is more timid, and therefore less dangerous 

 to poultry and farmers' stock. It is not found in 

 Britain, nor in the west of Europe, beyond, perhaps, 

 the wooded and rocky hills of Dauphiny and Alsace, 

 but is the predominant race of northern Switzerland 

 and Bavaria, and it may extend much further to 

 tlie eastward. 



The Brant Fox is assumed to be the same spe- 

 cies as the coal fox ; but Linnteus, in the Fauna 

 Suecica, describes it as brighter fulvous than the 

 common, and M-ith the end of the tail black. Dr. 

 Shaw mixes the above with a Pennsylvanian speci- 

 men Ave think totally distinct ; and it may be sus- 

 pected that the tips of the tails were not accurately 

 observed in either, or that the Linnsean Brant is 

 a fine variety of the Sooty, before described. 



The Nepal Fox (Vulpes Hodgsonii.) — This spe- 

 cies, of which we do not know the dimensions, was 

 first described by General Hardwicke : it is covered 

 with a rather w^oolly fur ; above bluish-gi-ey ; the 

 forehead, nape, and middle of the back, yellowish 

 brown: the end of the tail black; (he chin and 



