Some Mammalia in the British Museum. 577 



unity we can take, will not, at present, warrant the conclusion, 

 that the operations of man can throw back an organism suffi- 

 ciently specialised to be capable of propagating its species 

 into that ambiguous state in which it may be obliged, by the 

 ambient media, to exchange its form with that of another 

 existing species. It is, therefore, not with a view of engaging 

 any body to believe the alleged transformation that I call the 

 attention of the English reader to the above observations, but 

 merely from a wish to mention a curious phenomenon, whose 

 frequent recurrence can scarcely be doubted, on account of 

 the mass and respectability of evidence now before the public; 

 and the cause of which, for the same reason, it appears not 

 altogether irrelevant to enquire into, by repeating the same 

 experiments in various localities. 

 Weimar, July, 1837. 



Art. IV. Description of some new or little known Mammhlia, 

 principally in the British Museum Collection. By John Edward 

 Gray, F.R.S., President of the Botanical Society of London. 



Fe v lis chinensis. Yellowish grey, with numerous small unequal black 

 spots. Forehead and nape with four or five, and cheek with two, black 

 streaks. Eyebrows, cheeks, and chin, white. Throat, belly, insides of 

 the legs, white, with larger black brown spots. Feet and soles grey, not 

 spotted. Tail as long as the body, slender, black-spotted, with four or 

 five cross bands on the upper side of the end, and the tip black. Length : 

 body and head, 21 in.; tail, 10 in. 

 Inhabits China. British Museum. 



Fctis inconspi'cua. Grizzle-grey, black and white, slightly varied with 

 brownish streaks and waves; beneath, white. Back of ears, large spots 

 and cross bands on the throat, belly, and outside of the legs, black. 

 Two obscure streaks on the cheeks, yellowish. Tail elongate, cylindrical, 

 grizzled. Soles grizzled. 

 Inhabits ? Nepal. 



Fctis omata Gray Ulust. Ind. Zool., part 2. pi. 2. Fulvous, with large 

 round, black spots ; a black band across the upper part of the legs. Tail 

 elongate, and with five or six black rings. 

 Inhabits India. 



Fctis pulchella. Pale yellowish white ; hinder part of the vertebral line 

 varied with black-tipped hairs ; sides and outer part of legs with a few 

 indistinct darker cross bands; beneath white; crown and nape with five 

 or six narrow darker stripes; two bands across the upper part of the fore 

 legs black ; tip of ears dark. Young. Paler, band rather darker. 

 Inhabits Egypt. — T. Christie, Esq. British Museum. 



Ca v nis cluysurus (Fulvous-tailed Dog). Fur pale, foxy, varied, with black- 

 tipped rigid white hairs, which are most abundant on the sides, and only 

 scattered on the hinder part of the back. Under fur soft, silky ; of the 

 back, fulvous ; of the sides, whitish ; lead-coloured at the base of the 

 hairs. Cheeks, chin, throat, and belly, white. Sides of the chest, inner 

 sides of the legs, yellowish white. Upper part of the legs and anal 

 region bright reddish fulvous. Tail cylindrical, reaching nearly to the 



Vol. I. — No. 11. n. s. uu 



