YULPES VULPES. 
225 
by Canon Tristram. The skull is exactly like that of V. i^ersica, and the coloration 
of the animal has the dull brown and greyish colour of the foxes of that region. 
Lataste ^ in discussing the relationship of the foxes of Barbary to those of Europe, by 
means of characters drawn from their skulls, remarks : “ J’ai cependant fini par trouver, 
dans la denture et dans la forme d’une partie du crane, deux caracteres qui me semblent 
assez nets et assez constants pour etablir, entin a posteriori, la distinction specifique du 
Eenard d’Europe et de celui du nord de IMfrique ”; and he gives expression to their 
characters as follows :— 
“ 1°. Le palais du C. niloticus est plus etroit et ses dents tuberculeuses superieures 
sont plus developpees ; de telle sorte que la distance reciproque des deux tuberculeuses 
anterieures est, chez le C. niloticus, toujourssensiblementetparfoisbeaucoup^wymewr6, 
tandis qu’elle est, chez le C. vulpes, toujours considerablement superieure a la longueur 
du bord externe de I’ensemble des deux tuberculeuses de chaque cote.” 
M. Lataste says the foregoing character was verified in the five Barbary and 
Tunisian foxes referred by him to V. nilotica, and in five foxes from Southern 
Europe (Girond, Bouches du Rhone; Italy, Trieste and Tuscany; and Sardinia), one 
from Denmark, and another European fox the locality of which I cannot trace all of 
which were referred to Vulpes vulpes. 
In order to test the value of this character I have tabulated the measurements 
indicated by Lataste, drawn from fifteen foxes from various localities:— 
Breadth 
Length 
Palatal 
Palatal 
between 
of 
breadth in 
breadth less 
1st upper 
upper 
excess of 
than length 
molars. 
molars. 
molar length. 
of molars. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
South Germany. 
s 
17-5 
15-3 
2 
Genoa.. 
d 
20 
14’5 
5-4 
... 
Sardinia. 
d 
17-4 
14-9 
2-5 
Assuan, Egypt. 
d 
16-5 
15-5 
1 
• • • 
Mask at. 
d 
15-9 
14-7 
1-2 
Gizeh, Egypt. 
d 
16-9 
14 
2-9 
• • • 
Scotland. 
? 
19 
15-5 
37 
Tuscany, Italy. 
? 
18-2 
15-8 
2-4 
... 
Gizeh, Egypt. 
? 
15-5 
14'5 
1 
Wells of Moses. 
? 
14-4 
15-3 
... 
IT 
Muree, Punjab ... . 
d 
18-4 
14-4 
4 
Shiraz, Persia. 
d 
14-6 
16-5 
1-9 
Banias, Palestine. 
d 
16-5 
14 
2-5 
Tangiers, Morocco. 
• • • 
15-3 
15T 
0-2 
Algiers, Algeria. 
d 
14 
14-3 
0-3 
1 Expl. Sc. Tunisie, Zool. Mamm. 1887, p. 11. 
2 By a typographical error the No. 2492 is twice mentioned in the Nos. of the foxes of Europe used by 
Lataste for comparison. 
2g 
