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Show 204 DR. J. SCULLY ON THE MAMMALS OF GILGIT. [Jan. 18, to have been turned aside by Bears in their search for insects. The natives add that this Bear will devour any carcass it may chance to find in its wanderings. In the Gilgit district the young are usually born about the middle of May. The Gilgit Bear agrees well in external characters with Severtzoff's description of his Ursus leuconyx. The claws are pale horny or quite white; and the length of half a dozen specimens, measured in the flesh, varied from 4 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 8 inches. There is, as usual, considerable variation in the skulls. I was disposed at first to consider U. leuconyx separable from U. isabellinus on account of its smaller size, white claws, and more rufous-brown coloration ; but I doubt if there be any constant distinction. U. isabellinus is usually spoken of as a large Bear, equal in size to U. arctos. Jerdon says (' Mammals of India ') that a moderate-sized one measured 7 feet 6 inches ; and Kinloch (' Large Game of Thibet') says that it attains a length of 7 feet. In the ©riginal description of the species, however, U. isabellinus is expressly said to be smaller than U. arctos, the length of the skin which formed the type being 3 feet 10 inches only. Again, U. isabellinus has pale horn-coloured claws very little darker than in U. leuconyx. As to the colour of the fur, this varies so much in both forms that no specific difference can he founded upon it. RODENTIA. 19. SCIUROPTERUS FIMBRIATUS (Gray). Sciuropterus fimbriatus, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. n. s. i. p. 584 (1837). This Flying Squirrel is not very common in the Gilgit district, where it is confined to forest-country at elevations of from 8000 to 12,000 feet. All m y specimens were procured in pine-forests. 20. ARCTOMYS CAUDATUS, Jacq. Arctomys caudatus, Jacquemont, Voyage dans lTnde, iv. p. 66 (1844). This fine Marmot was only found on the southern limit of the region included in this paper. On the Astor side of the Burzil Pass the Long-tailed Marmot is found in considerable numbers; but I have no evidence of its occurrence west of the Indus anywhere in the vicinity of Gilgit. 21. Mus ALEXANDRINUS, Geoff. Mus alexandrinus, Geoffrov, Descr. de l'Egypte, Hist. Nat. ii p. 733 (1812). Mus rufescens, apud Jerdon, M a m m . of India, p. 199 ; Blanford, J. A. S. B. 1879, ii. p. 97. Common throughout the inhabited parts of the Gilgit district, from 4000 to 7000 feet above sea-level. It is chiefly a Field-Rat, but often enters houses"; and its young are frequently found in sheds |