MAMMALIA. 27 



naked pad on the posterior portion of the fore feet (palma), only seen on turning up the hair. 

 The pads are surrounded by short blackish hair ; the claws are white. 



The length of the skin (doubtless somewhat stretched) is 18 inches from nose to insertion 

 of tail ; tail 12^ to the end of the longest hairs, which project 3% inches beyond the end of 

 the tail proper. 



A second skin, doubtless from the same species of marten, has since been brought from 

 Eastern Turkestan by Dr. Scully, and presented to the Indian Museum. The fur is not so 

 long, and the under-fur is not quite so white, being very pale ashy grey, but in all essential 

 respects this skin agrees with that procured by Dr. Stoliczka, and it has the advantage that 

 the skull, tail and limb-bones are left in the skin. On the label this specimen is marked 

 from Sarikol, and there can be little, if any, doubt that the animal had been kept in captivity. 

 That it was procured alive, or freshly killed, by Dr. Scully, is shown by his having recorded the 

 weight and measurements. The skull is not quite adult, and has been somewhat injured, but 

 still it is nearly, if not quite, full grown. The dimensions marked on the label are : — length 28 

 inches, tail 11"3. The skin measures now from nose to insertion of tail 18 inches, tail 11, of 

 which 2J consist of hairs beyond the end ; hind foot and tarsus from heel (a little contracted) 

 3 inches. The weight is recorded as 1 lb 10| oz. 



There are also several marten skins in the Indian Museum, purchased from a Cabul 

 merchant, who said they came from Bokhara. These skins have the same dark sepia-brown 

 or blackish brown colour, white throat, glossy piles, and soft whitish under-fur as the Tur- 

 kestan skins. A marten skull from Afghanistan, in the same collection, much resembles 

 that taken from the skin brought by Dr. Scully. The form of the zygomata is, however, 

 somewhat different. 



In the list of Dr. Stoliczka's collections, published in 1875, this Yarkand marten-skin 

 was assigned, with doubts, to M. foina, the European beech-marten. I had then no skin of 

 that animal for comparison. I have since received both a skin and a skeleton from Dr. 

 Peters, and another skin has been obtained by the Indian Museum. The conclusion to which 

 I come is, that the Yarkand skins represent a different but nearly allied form. They agree 

 with M. foina in having a white throat, and there is but little difference in colour, but the 

 fur in the Asiatic form is longer, softer, and more glossy, and the under-fur much paler, being 

 nearly white instead of brownish-grey. The fur of one of the Yarkand skins is almost equal 

 in beauty and softness to that of the sable. 



The skull of M. leucolaclmcea approaches that of M. foina in type, and differs from that of 

 M. abietum, being much broader than the latter, with a wider muzzle and less rounded outline 

 above. The permanent pre-molars are not fully grown, and the third upper pre-molar on 

 each side is but just appearing through the jaw. The hinder molars resemble those of M. foina 

 more than those of M. abietum. Blasius 1 points out that the third upper pre-molar in 

 M. abietum is concave outside ; that the length of the fourth or flesh-tooth along the external 

 margin equals the transverse diameter of the hindermost or tubercular molar, and the outer 

 margin of the latter is attenuate and not incurved ; whereas in M. foina the third tooth is 

 convex externally, the length of the fourth exceeds the breadth of the fifth, and the outer 

 margin of the hindmost tooth is incurved and bi-lobed 2 (eingebuchtet, zweiklappig). In the 



1 Saugth, Deutsehl., p. 212. See also, on the distinctions between M. abietum and M. foina, Hensel, Wiegmann's Archiv, 

 1853, p. 17. 



2 In the only skulls of M. abietum and M. foina (one of each) that I have at present for comparison, the proportion of the 

 fourth to the fifth urper molar is as stated by Blasius. The other distinctions are less characteristic, and probably vary somewhat. 



