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Show 1881.] DR. J. SCULLY ON THE MAMMALS OF GILGIT. 203 in the hills, and is only rarely found in the vicinity of villages low as 5000 feet. In coloration and in dental and cranial characters m y specimens from the Gilgit valley accord completely with M.foina as defined by Mr. Alston (P. Z. S. 1879, p. 469). ' 16. MUSTELA TEMON, IlodgS. Mustela temon, Hodgson, J. A. S. B. 1857, p. 207. This yellow-bellied Weasel is fairly common in the Gilgit district at elevations of from 6000 to 12,000 feet. Two specimens in m y collection from Gilgit agree well with Hodgson's original description. The figure of M. temon in Mr. Hodgson's drawings, now in the British Museum, shows that the type was rather darker on the upper surface than m y examples ; and this is also the case in a skin from Sikkim or Tibet in Mr. Blanford's collection ; but the Gilgit and Sikkim animals are certainly specifically identical. I was disposed to identify this Weasel with M. alpina, Gebler, from the Altai (Moscou Memoires, vi. 1823, p. 213) ; but Radde's figure and measurements of the skull of M. alpina' from the typical locality seem to indicate a different species. A still older name, which may have to be used for this species, is Mustela altaica, Pallas (Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 98, 1811). 17. LUTRA VULGARIS, Erxl. Lutra vulgaris, Erxleben, Syst. Reg. Anim. p. 448 (1777); Blanford, J. A. S. B. 1877, ii. p. 324. Otters are tolerably common in the Gilgit river and its tributaries. Of the specimens of Otter which I obtained in the Gilgit district two agree in all respects with the Common Otter of Europe. The skull of one of these animals, a male, differs from the figure of the type of L. nair, Cuv. (Anderson, Anatomical and Zoological Researches in Western Yunnan, &c. pi. xi.), precisely in the points mentioned by Dr. Anderson for the differentiation of L. nair and L. vulgaris. 18. URSUS ISABELLINUS, Horsfield. Ursus isabellinus, Horsfield, Linn. Trans, xv. 1827, p. 332. Ursus leuconyx, Severtzoff, Turk. Jev. p. 80 (1873); Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1876, xviii. p. 43. Bears are common in the Astor valley and the Gilgit district, where they are usually found above the forest-region. In October numbers of these animals descend into the valleys as low as 6000 or 5000 feet to feed in the fields, and are then often killed by the peasants. This Bear retires in winter to the shelter of rocks and caves and remains in a semitorpid state during the season of severe cold. It becomes active again about March. Its usual food consists of fruits and roots; and it appears also to be fond of insects; on the grassy glades between the forests above Gilgit, at elevations of 9000 to 10,000 feet, the loose stones which lie about are constantly found 1 Reisen Sud. Ost-Sib. i. p. 50. |