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22 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



by Gray 1 to have the dentition of Cuon. The description of Canis (or Vulpes) melanotus 

 would agree fairly, but that the ears are black in that animal, which is evidently a fox 

 with a long bushy tail, and apparently, from the description, a much smaller animal than 

 the present. I know of no other Central Asiatic form with which to compare this skin. It 

 differs in colour and texture of fur from the equally unknown saggurg 3 of Persia. I can 

 only conclude that the skin described belongs to a large kind of jackal, hitherto undescribed ; 

 but I am unwilling to give a name to a mere skin without a skull in so difficult a genus as 

 restricted Canis, and it is barely possible that the skin may be that of a young wolf. The 

 colouration is not unlike that of the African C. mesomelas, but much paler and greyer. 



It was very probably a skin of the same animal, also from Chinese Tartary, which was 

 referred with doubt by Mr. Blyth 4 to Canis melanotus. This skin has disappeared, having 

 probably decayed. 



15. Canis {Vulpes) flavescens. PI. II, (as Canis {Vulpes) montanus). 



Vulpes flavescens, Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 1, xi, p. 118, (184-3) : List Mam. B. M., p. 60 

 (1843): Cat. Hodgson's coll. B. M., p. IT. (1846) : Do. second edition, p. 6 (1863) : P. Z. S., 

 1868, p. 516: Cat. Cam. &c. Mam. B. M., p. 203 (1869).— Adams, P. Z. S., 1858, p. 516.— 

 Blyth, Cat. Mam. As. Soc, p. 42. 



TulM, Turki of Yarkand. 



1, 2, skins (no skulls or feet) purchased at Leh ; 3, skin (and a skull detached) Maralbashi ; 4 — 8, skins 

 (without skulls or feet) purchased in Kashghar ; 9, skin (with skull and feet) Kashghar, from an 

 animal presented alive to the Mission ; 10, head and skull, no label. 



After much study of the skins available, and with much doubt, I have determined to 

 follow Mr. Blyth, and to class the foxes of Ladak and Yarkand apart from the common 

 Vulpes montana of the Himalayas. That the two are closely allied is certain, and it is 

 extremely doubtful whether any definite characters can be found to distinguish them, but so 

 far as the specimens available for examination show, the northern race is larger, paler in colour, 

 and often more rufous, with longer hair (a difference due, doubtless, to climate), and with much 

 larger teeth. Still there is so much variation in all these characters, that I was long inclined 

 to class all together as varieties of one species, and I am still far from satisfied that any 

 constant distinction exists. Under the impression that the two were not separable, the plate 

 representing the Yarkand foxes was named Canis { Vulpes) montanus. I think, however, 

 that the differences between several recognized races of foxes are no greater than those 

 between V. montana and the Tibetan animal, and I therefore leave the two forms separate 

 for the present. 



The Tibetan specimen in the Indian Museum, referred by Mr. Blyth in his Catalogue 

 of the Mammalia in the Museum of the Asiatic Society to V. flavescens, appears to me 

 identical with some of the skins from Kashghar. There is still a possibility that Mr. Blyth's 

 V. flavescens may not be the same as Gray's original type of the species in the British 

 Museum ; this was a purchased specimen, said to have been brought from Persia. Subse- 

 quently, in his Catalogue of the Carnivorous, Pachydermatous and Edentate Mammalia, 



1 P. Z. S., 1868, p. 498 : Cat. Cam. &c, Mam., p. 184. 



2 Pallas, Zoog. Ros. As., i, p. 44. 



3 Eastern Persia, ii, p. 38. 



4 Cat. Mam. Mus. As. Soc, p. 39. 



