22 
SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
by Gray 1 * to have the dentition of Cuon. The description of Canis (or Vulpes) melano 
would agree fairly, hut that the ears are black in that animal, which is evidently a 
with a long husliy tail, and apparently, from the description, a much smaller animal tin® 
the present. I know of no other Central Asiatic form with which to compare this skin, 
differs in colour and texture of fur from the equally unknown saggurg 3 of Persia. I ca0 
only conclude that the skin described belongs to a large kind of jackal, hitherto undescribec > 
but I am unwilling to give a name to a mere skin without a skull in so difficult a genus a 
restricted Cards, and it is barely possible that the skin may be that of a young wolf. Tb® 
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 ^ 
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 ). 
gO 
Vulpes flavescens, Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 1, xi, p. 118, (1843) : List Mam. B. M., p- 
(1843): Cat. Hodgson’s coll. B. M., p. IT. (1846) : Do. second edition, p. 6 (1863) : P. h J 
1868, p. 516: Cat. Cam. &c. Mam. B. M., p. 203 (1869).— Adams, P. Z. S., 1858, p. 51b- 
Blyth, Cat. Mam. As. Soc., p. 42. 
Tulke, Turki of Yarkand. 
1, 2, skins (no skulls or feet) purchased at Leh; 3,- skin (and a skull detached) Maralhashi ; 4—8, skl "* 
(without skulls or feet) purchased in Kashghar; 9, skin (with skull and feet) Kashghar, from 
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 ^ 
follow Mr. Blyth, and to class the foxes of Ladak and Yarkand apart from the com®^ 
Vulpes montana of the Himalayas. That the two are closely allied is certain, and it ^ 
extremely doubtful whether any definite characters can be found to distinguish them, but s 
far as the specimens available for examination show, the northern race is larger, paler in col®® 
and often more rufous, with longer hair (a difference due, doubtless, to climate), and with 
larger teeth. Still there is so much variation in all these characters, that I was long inch® 
to "class all together as varieties of one species, and I am still far from satisfied that a® 
constant distinction exists. Under the impression that the two were not separable, the P |a ^ 
representing the Yarkand foxes was named Canis {Vulpes) montanus. I think, howcMj 
that the differences between several recognized races of foxes are no greater than t 
between V. montana and the Tibetan animal, and I therefore leave the two forms sepal a 
for the present. , i <nie 
The Tibetan specimen in the Indian Museum, referred by Mr. Blyth in his Catalo» 
of the Mammalia in the Museum of the Asiatic Society to V. flavescens , appears to 
identical with some of the skins from Kashghar. There is still a possibility that Mr. Bly ^ 
V. flavescens may not he the same as Gray’s original type of the species in the Bri * 
Museum ; this was a purchased specimen, said to have been brought from Persia. * 5U ’ . 
quently, in his Catalogue of the Carnivorous, Pachydermatous and Edentate Man®® 
1 P. Z. a, 1868, p. 498 : Cat. Cam. &c., Mam., p. 184. 
5 Pallas, Zoog. Eos. As., i, p. 44. 
5 Eastern Persia, ii, p. 38. 
4 Cat. Mam. Mus. As. Soc., p. 39. 
