654 MR. SCLATER ON THE BLACK WOLF OF THIBET. [Not. 1 7, 



6. On the Black Wolf of Thibet. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., 

 Ph.D. F.K.S. Secretary to the Society. 



[Beceived October 28, 1874.] 



(Plate LXXVIII.) 



On the 6th of August, 1867, as already recorded in the Society's 

 'Proceedings'* we received, as a present, from Lieut. A. A. Kinlocb 

 and Lieut. J. Biddulph a pair of Black Wolves which had been ob- 

 tained by these gentlemen in the previous June from some wandering 

 Tartars at the foot of the Lanak pass, between the Tsomoriri Lake 

 and Hanle in Thibet. The facts concerning the capture of these ani- 

 mals are fully given in Mr. Kinloch's valuable work on the game- 

 animals of Thibet f. 



These Wolves remained with us for several years in good condition, 

 and bred every year from 1869 to 1873; but the young ones were in 

 every case but one destroyed by their parents. The following table 

 gives the date of birth aud number of young ones produced : — 



Date. No. of young. 



1869, April 23 2 



1870, „ 14 3 



1871, „ 18 4 



1872, „ 8 3 



1873, „ 8 2 



The only young one reared (a male of the first litter) was sold in 

 1869 to J. E. B. Bouverie Pusey, Esq.,F.Z.S., but died the follow- 

 ing year in that gentleman's possession. 



The female died in July 1873|; the male is still living in the 

 the Society's Gardens. 



I have hitherto referred these animals to the Lupus (sive Cants') 

 luniger of Hodgson, and have entered them in the 'Revised Catalogue 

 of Vertebrates ' (p. 47) as " Canis laniger, var. nigra." But I now 

 exhibit the original drawing of Mr. Hodgson's Lupis laniger out 

 of the series of drawings of Mammals which he has lately presented 

 to the Society's Library ; and it will be at once apparent that our 

 animals (of which I likewise exhibit an excellent coloured figure by 

 Mr. Keulemans, Plate LXXVIII.) cannot be referred to that species. 

 Indeed Mr. Kinloch has already observed, in the work above alluded 

 to:— 



"Wolves of at least two sorts are found all over Thibet; and I am 

 not sure that there are not three varieties. I know of two, the com- 

 mon Grey Chanko and the Black Chanko, called by the Tartars 

 Chanko nagpo (Black Wolf) I have heard of a so-called 



* SeeP.Z.S. 1867, p. 820. 



t Large-Game Shooting in Thibet and the North-west. By Alexander A. A. 

 Kinloch. London : 1869. Harrison. 



X The specimen is now in the Gallery of the Museum of the Jardin des 

 Plantes at Paris. 



