1872.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE MAMMALS. 817 



Elbow to tip of fore foot 1 ft. 3| in. 

 Carpal joint to ditto 8| in. 

 Knee to tip of hind foot 19| in. 

 Tarsal joint to ditto 1 1| in. 



These animals are light brown, speckled minutely with black in 

 winter ; as the spring advances, their heads, necks, and the fore part 

 of their bodies lose the speckling and become light chestnut or yel- 

 lowish brown. Hair on the crown short, thick, and close, a yellow 

 scurfy substance being often abundant at the roots of the hair. The 

 frontal skin shows no fleshy mark above the supraorbital furrow. 



I learn from Mr. Russell that the fawn is spotted with dark brown 

 spots all over the hind quarters. 



From the boundary hills whence came the deer-horns was brought 

 the skull of a magnificent Tiger (Felis tigris). The skull is one of 

 the largest I have seen. A skin which I saw was of the short-haired 

 southern breed. 



Leopards (Felis pardus) have also been brought thence — the gutted 

 carcass dried, with the skin enwrapping it (that is to say, attached to 

 the forehead, feet, and tail) and in a fine state of preservation. How 

 the body could be so thoroughly dried without injuring the skin was 

 surprising. The hunters said that without the skin it would be hard 

 to persuade purchasers of the genuineness of the article. They wanted 

 seventy dollars for each entire animal. I told them I wanted the 

 skulls of some Leopards. Some months after, they brought them to me, 

 having sold the bodies and skins. They were of the ordinary species, 

 the same that I procured at Canton (see P. Z. S. 1870, p. 628). 



Viverricula malaccensis and Mustela sibirica are too numerous 

 even within the city wall, destroying our poultry ; and in addition 

 to these two pests we have the Himalayan Ichneumon (Urva cancri- 

 vora, Hodgs.), which, living in abundance on the crab-frequented 

 shores of a lake not far from here, is attracted by the crabs of our 

 briny river to the neighbourhood of our houses, and there soon gains 

 a taste for poultry and their eggs. Viverra zibetha has been shot 

 among the bushes at the foot of our hills ; and Pere David, who was 

 here from March to May, shot a Paguma larvata from the branch 

 of a high tree near Hangchow. One Nyctereutes procyonoides was 

 brought me by a hunter during the winter. 



The Otter that frequents our lake I have procured a specimen of, 

 and am sending it home, together with its skeleton. It seems to me 

 darker on the under parts, and to have a narrower and deeper skull 

 than Lutra chinensis, Gray. It may possibly be L. swinhoii, Gray. 

 It is impossible to do any thing with the Otters without a series of 

 good skins and skulls. 



My bird- preserver brought three young Badgers here ; and I 

 bought one the other day at Shanghai, whither the country-people 

 bring them to sell to our sportsmen to bait with dogs. It seems to 

 be of the ordinary Chinese species, Meles leptorhynchus, A. M.-E. 

 (M. chinensis, Gray) (see P. Z. S. 1870, p. 622). 



Our woods resound with the metallic-sounding " chic-chic-chic- 



Proc; Zool. Soc— 1872, No. LII, 



