232 
THE MAMMALS OE EGYPT. 
VuLPES PALLIDA, Cretzschm. (Plate XXXI\ .) 
Canis pallidus, Cretzschm. Riipp. Atlas, 1826, p. 33, pi. xi.; Mivart, Canidae, 1890, p. 142, pi.; 
de Winton, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1899, p. 544. 
Canis pygmcEus, Hempr. & Ehrenb. Symb. Phys. 1832, nom. nud.; spec, in Mus. Berol. 
Cynalopex pallidus, Smith (H.), Tardiness Nat. Libr. ix. 1839, p. 228, pi. 17. 
Vulpes pallidus, Gerrard, Cat. Bones Brit. Mns. 1862, p. 87. 
Fennecus pallidus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 520. 
The muzzle is very sharp and pointed, and the eyes large and dark, the eyelids, 
and especially the inner canthus, being black. The ears are much smaller than those 
of 7. famelica. The general colour is pale sandy yellow, with the hairs on the 
back very slightly washed with blackish, and occasionally also, but to a less 
degree, those on the front of the legs. The head is paler than the body, being almost 
white. The ears are large and rounded at their tips, and are densely margined 
all round with very short soft hairs, forming a distinct border; their inner surface 
is nearly white, almost translucent, and veined. There is a more or less rusty area 
along the outside of the fore and hind limbs. The tail generally is the colour of the 
body, with a broad black tip, and a mesial interrupted blackish area on the upper 
surface. All the under parts and the inner sides of the limbs are cream-white. 
These foxes are smaller than the little 7. lengalensis, to which they are very similar 
in colour, with the exception of being slightly paler; the tails of the two are similarly 
coloured. They are slender little animals, about the height of a domestic cat. The 
tail is long and bushy, and the ears, although large, are not larger in proportion to the 
body than those of a European fox, indeed they are relatively slightly smaller. 
The skull of this species is distinguished by the relatively slight expansion of the 
zygomatic region and by the peculiar swelling of the posterior half of the nasals 
involving the superior or fronto-nasal wing of the maxillary, anterior to this there 
being a distinct contraction and depression of the nasals. The interfrontal suture in 
its lower half and the proximal half of the suture of the nasals present a deep furrow. 
These features are distinctive of all the skulls, and in the skull of 7. bengalensis they 
are more or less present, but the zygomatic breadth of the latter is greatly in excess of 
that of 7. pallida. There can be no doubt as to the close affinity of these two species 
of foxes. 
The specimens I obtained agree exactly with the type of the species in Frankfort. 
This fox is extremely common on the plain behind Suakin. It is gregarious and lives 
in large societies in great burrows. In four days I had twelve living specimens brought 
to me, nearly all males. It is known to the Hadendowahs by the name ‘ Barshoam 
1 [This is the name generally applied to jackal in the Sudan.—W. E. de W.] 
