always with a
white tip."--_Jerdon_.

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

According to Mountstuart Elphinstone the backs of the foxes in
Hurriana are of the same colour as the common fox, but in one part
of the desert their legs and belly, up to a certain height, are black,
and in another white--the one seems to have been wading up to the
belly in ink, and the other in whitewash.

This fox lives chiefly on the jerboa-rat (_Gerbillus Indicus_)
common on sandy plains. Jerdon thinks it more speedy than the common
Indian fox.

NO. 252. VULPES FERRILATUS.
_The Thibetan Grey Fox_.

NATIVE NAME.--_Iger_, Thibetan.

HABITAT.--Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Pale fulvous, with grizzled white or iron-grey sides;
shorter ears than in the Indian fox.

* * * * *

We now come to the true foxes, with shorter legs and moderate ears.

NO. 253. VULPES MONTANUS.
_The Hill Fox_ (_Jerdon's No. 140_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Loh_, Kashmiri; _Lomri_, Hindi, at Simla; _Wamu_,
Nepalese.

HABITAT.--Throughout the Himalayas.

DESCRIPTION.--Pale fulvous, with a dark brownish or deep chestnut
streak down the back; sides deeper fulvous; the haunches a steely
grey, mixed with yellowish hairs; tail grey and very bushy, largely
tipped with white; ears deep black on outside; cheeks and jowl
greyish-white; moustaches black; legs chestnut in front, paling off
behind.

SIZE.--Head and body, 30 inches; tail, 19 inches; weight, 14 lbs.

Not at all unlike an English fox, only more variegated. The foregoing
description is taken chiefly from a very fine specimen shot in the
garden of the house in which I stayed at Simla; but it is subject
to great variation, and is in its chief beauty in its winter dress.
Several specimens which I have seen are all more or less different
in colour. I have never seen a handsomer fox; the fur is extremely
rich, the longer hairs exceeding two inches, and the inner fur is
fine and dense. It is said to breed in April and May, the female
usually having three to four cubs.

NO. 254. VULPES PUSILLUS.
_The Punjab Fox_ (_Jerdon's No. 141_).

HABITAT.--Punjab Salt Range.

DESCRIPTION.--Similar to the last, but much smaller, being about the
size of the Indian fox. Jerdon suggests that it may be a variety of
the last species, dwarfed by a warmer climate, but Blyth and others
keep it apart.

NO. 255. VULPES FLAVESCENS.
_The Persian Fox_.

NATIVE NAMES.--