MAMMALIA. 27 
naked pad on the posterior portion of the fore feet (palma), only seen on turning up the hair. 
The pads are surrounded by short blackish hair; the claws are white. 
The length of the skin (doubtless somewhat stretched) is 18 inches from nose to insertion 
of tail; tail 12| to the end of the longest hairs, which project 3^- inches beyond the end of 
the tail proper. 
A second skin, doubtless from the same species of marten, has since been brought from 
Eastern Turkestan by Dr. Scully, and presented to the Indian Museum. The fur is not so 
long, and the under-fur is not quite so white, being very pale ashy grey, but in all essential 
respects this skin agrees with that procured by Dr. Stoliczka, and it has the advantage that 
the skull, tail and limb-bones are left in the skin. On the label this specimen is marked 
from Sarikol, and there can be little, if any, doubt that the animal had been kept in captivity. 
That it was procured alive, or freshly killed, by Dr. Scully, is shown by his having recorded the 
weight and measurements. The skull is not quite adult, and has been somewhat injured, but 
still it is nearly, if not quite, full grown. The dimensions marked on the label are:—length 28 
inches, tail 113. The skin measures now from nose to insertion of tail 18 inches, tail 11, of 
which 2J consist of hairs beyond the end; hind foot and tarsus from heel (a little contracted) 
3 inches. The weight is recorded as 1 lb 10J oz. 
There are also several marten skins in the Indian Museum, purchased from a Cabul 
merchant, who said they came from Bokhara. These skins have the same dark sepia-brown 
or blackish brown colour, white throat, glossy piles, and soft whitish under-fur as the Tur¬ 
kestan skins. A marten skull from Afghanistan, in the same collection, much resembles 
that taken from the skin brought by Dr. Scully. The form of the zygomata is, however, 
somewhat different. 
In the list of Dr. Stoliczka’s collections, published in 1875, this Yarkand marten-skin 
was assigned, with doubts, to M. foina, the European beech-marten. I had then no skin of 
that animal for comparison. I have since received both a skin and a skeleton from Dr. 
Peters, and another skin has been obtained by the Indian Museum. The conclusion to which 
I come is, that the Yarkand skins represent a different but nearly allied form. They agree 
with M. foina in having a white throat, and there is but little difference in colour, but the 
fur in the Asiatic form is longer, softer, and more glossy, and the under-fur much paler, being 
nearly white instead of brownish-grey. The fur of one of the Yarkand skins is almost equal 
in beauty and softness to that of the sable. 
The skull of M. leucolachncea approaches that of M. foina in type, and differs from that of 
M. abietum , being much broader than the latter, with a wider muzzle and less rounded outline 
above. The permanent pre-molars are not fully grown, and the third upper pre-molar on 
each side is but just appearing through the jaw. The hinder molars resemble those of M. foina 
more, than those of M. abietum. Blasius 1 points out that the third upper pre-molar in 
M. abietum is concave outside; that the length of the fourth or flesh-tooth along the external 
margin equals the transverse diameter of the hindermost or tubercular molar, and the outer 
margin of the latter is attenuate and not incurved; whereas in M. foina the third tooth is 
convex externally, the length of the fourth exceeds the breadth of the fifth, and the outer 
margin of the hindmost tooth is incurved and bi-lobed a ( eingebuehtet , zweiJclappig). In the 
1 Saugth, Deutsehl., p. 212. See also, on the distinctions between M. abietum and M. foina, Hensel, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 
1853, p. 17. 
2 In the only skulls of M. abietum and M. foina (one of each) that I have at present for comparison, the proportion of the 
fourth to the fifth upper molar is as stated by Blasius. The other distinctions are less characteristic, and probably vary somewhat. 
