1849.] The Polecat of Tibet, 449 



the body. Upon the tail they are shorter, and tend to a point at its 

 extremity, where however they do not much surpass the true tail, less so 

 than in the English Polecat Upon the head and limbs the hair is short, 

 harsh and void of woolly subfleece. Elsewhere the hair is long, fine, 

 straight, elastic, glossy, but much scanter than the very thick, soft 

 woolly piles below it. The colour of the animal is a sordid fulvous, 

 deeply shaded with black. The limbs and tail are wholly black, and 

 so is the whole under surface of the body, save a narrow band proceed- 

 ing from the fulvous flanks round the centre of the belly. A black 

 mask covers the face, as far as the eyes, inclusive, and the nostrils ex- 

 clusive. And this dark mask is rendered more conspicuous by being 

 completely surrounded by the pale fulvous hue, which prevails over the 

 lips, chin, cheeks, ears and crown of the head. The dimensions of the 

 animal and of its scull are given in detail below. But I may here add 

 m reference to the scull that it has greater height and greater arcua- 

 tion along the culminal line than in most other true weasels, the Eng- 

 lish Polecat perhaps included. The teeth are -§. \.\. £ .f . The incisors 

 above are disposed in line ; but below, the intermediate teeth stand 

 interiorly to the rest. The canines are large and somewhat curved, 

 especially the lower ones, which however have no heel at their base. 

 The first molar above is simple, conic and small. The next also conic, 

 is larger with a quasi heel before and behind the cone. The third or 

 carnassial tooth has two cutting, compressed lobes and a small internal 

 heel placed anteally. The 4th or tubercular molar of this jaw, is trans- 

 versely set, parallelogramic in form, and shows two blunt and rugged 

 conic processes centrally divided by a transverse dip. In the lower 

 jaw the three first molars are conic and uncompressed with more or 

 less of heel before and behind the central lobe of their crowns. The 

 4th or true camassier is, in this jaw, very trenchant, and much com- 

 pressed, with three lobes, of which the hindmost is the least. This 

 tooth has no trace of an internal heel, but its posteal lobe assimilates 

 somewhat with the tubercular of this jaw, which is a small round flat- 

 topped tooth fitted for crushing only. The excellent drawings append- 

 ed to the above description will, I hope, complete whatever more is 

 needful to an accurate appreciation of the species. 



