24 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



In the plate, the upper figure represents the darker variety of V. flavescens, the lower 

 the more rufous and typical form. 



A specimen of a fox from Ydrkand presented hy Captain Biddulph to Mr. Hume, who 

 has added it to the collection, looks at first sight as if it must be a different species. The hair 

 is much shorter and thinner than in the other foxes, and that on the tail is so deficient, that 

 there is nothing approaching a brush, and the tail resembles that of a domestic dog. This may 

 be due to accident or ill condition, but the hair on the body, though not long, looks perfectly 

 healthy. There is no woolly under-fur, and the hair is rather harsh. On the whole, I think 

 this skin may be that of an animal which has just lost its long winter coat. That the loss 

 of the long fur greatly alters the colour of foxes is a well-known fact. 



The following is a description of this skin. All the middle of the back, from the nape 

 to the insertion of the tail, is blackish-brown; sides of the body isabelline, many of the hairs on 

 the posterior part of the flanks having very long black tips, so that the blackish back appears 

 broader on the loins than behind the shoulders ; the hairs are dusky at the base on the loins, 

 whitish near the shoulders ; head rufous above, with scattered white tips to some of the 

 hairs ; upper lip whitish, as are the chin, throat and lower parts generally ; whiskers black ; 

 ears black externally except close to the head, with rather long whitish hair near the margins 

 inside. External surface of shoulders and thighs rufous, with a few white and black tips 

 mixed. Anterior portion of the whole fore-leg and foot, and of the tarsus and hind-foot, 

 black, slightly grizzled with white tips and becoming more mixed with rufous hairs above, 

 but quite black along the edge of the whitish inner-surface of the limbs. Hairs beneath the 

 feet dusky-brown ; below the tarsus rufous brown ; tail dull rufous above, below whitish near 

 the base, becoming much mixed with black towards the tip, which is entirely white both 

 above and below ; the hair on the back is about 2a inches long. 



The following measurements, except those of the skull and leg bones, are, of course, only 



approximate, as they are taken on the skin : — 



ft. inches. 



Length of bead and body ......... .20 



Tail, including hair at end ........... 1 6 



Total length . 3 6 



Length of ear from orifice . . . . . . . . . . . 3'5 



Length of skull from occipital plane to end of premaxillaries . . . . . 5*95 



Breadth of skull across widest part of zygomatic arches ...... 3*1 



Length of tarsus and hind-foot to end of claws ....... 6 - 



Fore-foot and carpus to ditto . . . . . . . . . . . 3*5 



Since the above was written, I have seen a skin of a fox brought by Captain Biddulph 

 from Kashmir, apparently V. montana, with a similar colouration to the specimen above 

 described, except that the back is dark rufous. This specimen, shot in August, has evidently 

 its summer fur. In all these foxes the deep rufous cross-like mark, formed by the dark back 

 and the line across the shoulders, is conspicuously contrasted, in the summer vesture, with the 

 pale sides of the animal, but disappears in the winter fur. 



