rly full grown. It is much coursed with greyhounds,
and gives most amusing sport, doubling constantly till it gets near
an earth; but it has little or no smell, so its scent does not lie.

Sir Walter Elliot wrote of it in the Madras _Journal of Literature
and Science_ (vol. x. p. 102): "Its principal food is rats,
land-crabs, grasshoppers, beetles, &c. On one occasion a
half-devoured mango was found in the stomach. It always burrows in
open plains, runs with great speed, doubling like a hare; but instead
of stretching out at first like that animal, and trusting to its turns
as a last resource, the fox turns more at first; and, if it can fatigue
the dogs, it then goes straight away."

It is easily tamed if taken young, and is very playful, but Jerdon,
in repeating the assertion that tame foxes sooner or later go mad,
says he has known one or two instances where they have done so; but
McMaster throws doubt on this, and puts the supposed madness down
to excitement at the amorous season. He gives an interesting account
of a pair kept by a friend, which lived on amicable terms with his
greyhounds. The owner writes: "I sometimes took them on to the parade
ground, and slipped a couple of greyhounds after them. They never
ran far, as when tired they lay down on their backs, and were at once
recognised by the dogs. On one occasion one fox was tired before the
other, and after he had made friends with the dogs he joined them
in the chase after the other."

NO. 251. VULPES LEUCOPUS.
_The Desert Fox_ (_Jerdon's No. 139_).

HABITAT.--Northern India, and also on the Western Coast about Cutch.

DESCRIPTION.--"Light fulvous on the face, middle of back and upper
part of tail; cheeks, sides of neck and body, inner side, and most
of the fore parts of the limbs, white; shoulder and haunch, and
outside of the limbs nearly to the middle joint, mixed black and
white; tail darker at the base above, largely tipped with white;
lower parts nigrescent; ears black posteriorly; fur soft and fine
as in _V. montanus_, altogether dissimilar from that of _V.
Bengalensis_. The skull with the muzzle distinctly narrower, and the
lower jaw weaker. One I killed at Hissar had the upper parts fulvous,
the hair black-tipped; sides paler; whole lower parts from the chin,
including the inside of the arm and thigh, blackish; feet white on
the inner side anteriorly, with a blackish border on the anterior
limbs; legs fulvous externally; all feet white; tail