THE KORSAK AND THE KAROGUN. 71 



and cruel aggressors, and daring assailants, against the enemies who 

 had exhausted their patience. 



Two other wild beasts of the dog genus, the Korsak and the 

 Karogun, are eagerly hunted by the Tartars, especially by the Kirghiz. 

 But the chase, in this instance, is carried on for industrial purposes. 

 The fur of these animals is very valuable, and the Kirghiz hunters 

 carry thousands every year to the great market of Orenburg. The 

 korsak is a species of fox. In colour he closely resembles the jackal ; 

 but he has a long tail, with a black tuft at the tip, and on each side 

 of the head a brown stripe extends from the eye to the muzzle. He 

 ranges over all the Steppes of Tartary, and lives in burrows like the 

 foxes. The natives pretend that he never drinks. He is a very 

 handsome animal, and when, towards the close of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, several individuals were brought to Europe, he became quite the 

 fashion. All the great ladies of the court were desirous of possessing 

 one, which they tended in their chambers, and when promenading in 

 the parks, often led about like a spaniel. The mania was of brief 

 duration, but it clearly showed how easily the animal could be tamed 

 and reared. 



Buffon has confounded the karogun with the isatis or polar fox, 

 and other animals with the korsak. He is equally distinct from the 

 one as from the other, and the Kirghiz never make a mistake, though 

 they hunt for both in the same districts. His skin is of an ashen 

 gray on the back, and a pale yellow under the belly. His fur is 

 not less precious than that of the korsak. 



The wild Ornithology of the Steppes comprises some migra- 

 tory palmipedes, a few gallinacese, and some predatory birds of the 

 falcon family. Gulls, wild ducks, herons, curlews, and especially 

 pelicans, people the shores of the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the 

 Caspian, with the banks of the rivers that flow into them, and the 

 neighbouring pools. The Cossack and Kalmlik chiefs, who now 

 ardently cherish the love of falconry that was so marked a trait 



