566 
CARNIVORES. 
under-parts being then nearly white. This species is found throughout most of 
the sandy and more or less desert regions on the western side of India, and also 
extends into Baluchistan, Afghanistan, probably Persia, Arabia, and most likely 
other districts of South-Western Asia. It is essentially a desert-hunting species, 
and in India appears to live chiefly on the gerbils so common in the same sandy 
regions. 
In the deserts of Central Asia the preceding species is replaced 
Corsac Fox ... 
by the corsac fox ( C . corsac ), distinguished by its general paler 
colour, white under-parts, and the black tip to the tail, the shoulder-spots and 
stripe of the desert-fox being also wanting. The two are, however, evidently very 
closely allied, and Professor Mivart suggests that they may prove to be local 
the corsac fox (f nat. size). 
varieties of one species. The range of the corsac extends from the banks of the 
Volga and the shores of the Caspian Sea to the south-eastern parts of Siberia; 
while eastwards it is doubtless continued into China, although its limits in this 
direction, as well as to the northward, are unknown. It has been obtained from 
Amurland. Like the desert-fox, the corsac is entirely restricted to open and more 
or less desert regions. It preys largely on small rodents, such as voles, picas, and 
the like, and is chiefly nocturnal. It does not appear that it makes a burrow for 
itself, generally tenanting the deserted hole of a marmot, which it leaves after a 
time for that of another. The corsac is soon run down by dogs, and when tracked 
to its lair through the snow in winter is said to remain below, and rather than 
bolt perish from hunger. 
The little-known Tibetan fox (C. ferrilatus), from the neighbourhood of 
Lhasa, is another nearly-allied small species, distinguished by the relatively shorter 
ears being pale rufous instead of dark-coloured; the tip of the tail being white. 
