ATIVE NAMES.--_Lomri_, _Lokri_, _Lokeria_, Hindi; _Kokri_,
Mahrathi; _Khekar_ and _Khikir_ in Behar; _Khek-sial_, Bengali;
_Konk_, _Kemp-nari_, _Chanaak-nari_, Canarese; _Konka-nakka_ or
_Gunta-nakka_, _Poti-nara_, Telegu.--_Jerdon_.

HABITAT.--Throughout India; probably Ceylon, as Kellaart mentions
having heard of a fox there, but I cannot trace it, or any other,
in Burmah.

DESCRIPTION.--"Reddish-grey; rufous on the legs and muzzle; reddish
white beneath; ears long dark brown externally; tail long bushy, with
a broad black tip; muzzle very acute; chin and throat
whitish."--_Jerdon_.

Here is Colonel Sykes's description of it in Southern India:--

"It is a very pretty animal, but smaller than the European fox; head
short; muzzle very sharp; eyes oblique; irides nut-brown; legs very
slender; tail trailing on the ground, very bushy; along the back and
on the forehead fawn colour, with hair having a white ring to its
tip; back, neck, between the eyes, along the sides, and half way down
the tail reddish-grey; each hair banded black and reddish-white; all
the legs reddish outside, reddish-white inside; chin and throat
dirty white; along the belly reddish-white; ears externally dark
brown, and with the fur so short as to be scarcely discoverable; edges
of eyelids black; muzzle red brown."

The colour however varies a good deal, according to season and
locality. It becomes more grey in the cold season. McMaster writes
that he once killed one silvery grey, almost white.

SIZE.--Head and body, 20 to 21 inches; tail, 12 to 14 inches; weight,
5-1/2 lbs.

This fox is common, not only in open country, but even in cantonments
and suburbs of cities. Hardly a night passes without its familiar
little chattering bark in the Dalhousie Square gardens, or on the
Maidan, being heard; and few passengers running up and down our
railway lines, who are on the look-out for birds and animals as the
train whirls along, fail to see in the early morning our little grey
friend sneaking home with his brush trailing behind him.

Jerdon says of the manner in which he carries this that he trails
it when going slowly or hunting for food; holds it out horizontal
when running; and raises it almost erect when making a sudden turn.

It also, like the jackal; will eat fruit, such as melons, ber, &c.,
and herbs. It breeds in the spring, from February to April, and has
four cubs. Jerdon says the cubs are seldom to be seen outside their
earth till nea