26 



SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



in being much greyer, whilst from M. albogularis 1 it may be at once distinguished by 

 wanting the white throat. Another form found in Eastern Tibet has been described by 

 A. Milne-Edwards under the name of Meles obscurus; 2 but it belongs to the genus or 

 sub-genus Arctonyx, and the general colouration of this genus diverges considerably from 

 that of the typical badgers. 



Judging from the size of the Kashghar skin, it probably belonged to a rather smaller 

 animal than M. taxus, and the fur is apparently rather softer. The colour is very similar ; 

 the hairs on the back being about 2| inches long, white at the base, with a brownish tinge 

 towards the extremity ; near the end they are black for about half an inch, the point being 

 white, tail hairs the same, but rather longer, (about 3 inches at the end of the tail,) and with 

 the black ring and white tips more developed ; the middle of the forehead and nose brownish 

 white ; the brownish-black marks on each side from the nose, enclosing the eyes and ears, 

 meet on the forehead rather in front of the ears, which are white anteriorly, black behind 

 and inside ; cheeks white, with a slight brownish tinge ; lower parts and limbs black, except 

 the inside of the thigh, which appears to have been white. Only the skin of the upper part 

 of the hind limbs has been preserved. 



Length of skin, 3 feet 2 inches, of which the tail measures 8*5 inches, and the hair at the 

 end of the tail 3 inches. 



In Western Turkestan, according to Severtzoff, Meles taxus is found. 



18. MARTES LEUCOLACHNiEA, Sp. nOV., 



or Maries foina, var. leucolachncea. 



M. foina ? J. A. S. B., 1875, xliv, Part 2, p. 106. 

 Sausar, Turki of Yarkand. 



M. magnitudine color eque ad M. foinam proxime accedens, sed vellere multo molliore, 

 lanugine albeseente, distinguenda. 



1, skin, without skull, purchased at Yarkand. 



This skin is dark sepia-brown in colour, the feet and tail being nearly black. On the 

 throat and breast is a large white patch in the form of an irregular horse-shoe, the convexity 

 directed forward, and each of the lateral extremities extending back beneath the fore arm. 

 The belly is of the same colour as the back. The face is a little paler, being rather earthy 

 brown, palest on the cheeks ; the chin the same colour as the head. The ears have short 

 white hairs along the margin, and longer greyish brown hairs inside. Whiskers black. 



The fur is very fine and soft, consisting of long glossy dark brown piles, nearly 2 inches 

 long in the middle of the back, and fine woolly under-fur, nearly white, but with a very faint 

 ashy tinge., and rather more than an inch in length : the whitish colour shows distinctly 

 throughout the body through the rather sparse longer hairs. The hair on the tail is blackish 

 and very long. 



The soles of the feet are principally covered with short hair, but there are naked pads to 

 the toes, and a larger naked tri-lobed pad on the anterior part of the sole. There is also a small 



1 Blyth, J. A. S. B., xxii, 1853, p. 590. 



2 Eecherches Mam., p. 338, PI. LXI1. 



