24 



Mammals of Burma. 



[No. 1, 



the fur slightly tipped with earthy-brown on the upper-parts, and much 

 more largely with a paler (almost whitish) brown below ; membranes dusky. 

 Length 3± in., of which tail 1^ in. ; expanse 9f in. ; fore-arm l^in.; ear- 

 conch (posteriorly) % in. Three specimens (females). 



[This species must ever remain doubtful, for the types referred to above 

 cannot be found in the Indian Museum collection. They were absent from 

 the collection of the Asiatic Society when it was transferred to the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. — G.E.D.] 



It need hardly be remarked that the foregoing is a meagre list of the 

 Chiroptera which may reasonably be expected to inhabit the different pro- 

 vinces of British Burma ; but it is a group which for various reasons is 

 neglected by 'ordinary collectors, and one that to be investigated with 

 tolerable success requires some special attention to be bestowed upon it. Only 

 those zoologists who have made some study of the Bats can have an adequate 

 idea of the multitudinous variety of them, not only as regards specific but 

 very strongly marked divisional forms ; and exceedingly little is as yet known 

 of the diversities of habit which must needs accompany so much variation in 

 structure. 



Sub-order Carnivoea. 



Fam. Canidae. 

 41. Canis eutilans (J. 137). 



Cants rutikns, Muller; vide Murie, on "Indian Wild Dogs," P. Z. S. 1872, p. 715 

 et seq. Tau-khwae (Mason). 



The "Dhole" is generally diffused through the forests, but apparently 

 not common anywhere ; it hunts in packs. 



A Burmese female in the People's Park, in Madras, " upwards of three 

 years old," is stated by Col. McMaster to answer to Hodgson's description of 

 the Budnm of Nipal, "except in her height, which cannot be more than 

 seventeen or eighteen inches." In Malacca and Sumatra the race, 0. suma- 

 trensis, Hardwicke, is smaller and deeper coloured, and the Tenasserim 

 race is probably identical with it, whether or not so with that of India. 

 In the latter there is considerable difference in the appearance of the 

 animal according to season, the winter vesture being longer and paler in 

 colouring, with the brush much more finely developed. This seasonal 

 difference may well have given rise to some of the notions regarding a 

 plurality of species. 



