24 
SECOND YABKAND MISSION. 
In the plate, the upper figure represents the darker variety of V. jiavescens, the lower 
the more rufous and typical form. 
A specimen of a fox from Ydrkand presented by 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 fianks 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 2^ 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 head and body .......... 2 0 
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 ...... 3T 
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. 
