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Show 1870.] PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON iELURUS FULGENS. 753 about six years *, when the name by which the author had characterized the animal was withdrawn in favour of AiLURUst, bestowed upon it by Fr. Cuvier, who in the meantime had received a specimen from M . Duvaucel, and given a coloured figure of the entire animal, and a full description of its external characters, in the fiftieth number of the 'Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes' (vol. iii.), June 1825. M . Cuvier uses the word "Panda" as the trivial name, and proposes the generic term Ailurus " a cause de sa ressemblance exterieure avec le Chat." This was not a very happy choice, as in all structural characters indicative of true affinity it is almost as widely removed from the true Cats as any member of the group of terrestrial Carnivora. With the skin sent to the Paris Museum by M . Duvaucel were the jaw-bones and teeth, wanting the posterior molars, and also the bones of the feet. These are the only fragments of the osteology oi Mlurus figured or described in De Blainville's ' Osteographie.' For further information upon the habits and structure of the " Panda," or " Wah," as it was now called, we are indebted to a paper by Mr. Bryan H. Hodgson in 'Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal,' vol. xvi. p. 1113 (1847). Unfortunately, at the time of writing this notice, Mr. Hodgson's original manuscript, containing, as he says, "a full and careful description of the habits and of the hard and soft anatomy oi Ailurus," had been lost, and consequently the anatomical description, as published, is exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory. It constitutes, however, the whole of the information possessed at at present upon the subject. The paper is illustrated by slight sketches of the external appearance of the animal in several attitudes, and of the base of the skull and the mandible, with much-worn teeth. Woodcuts of the side view of the skull and palate are given in Dr. Gray's "Revision of the Ursidse" (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 708). Although of no use for details of structure, they serve to show the general outline of the cranium and the peculiar form of the mandible. On the 22nd of May 1869, a living specimen oi Mlurus (the first which had reached Europe) arrived at the Society's Gardens, having been presented by Dr. H. Simpson. It was captured in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling. Notices relating to this specimen will be found in P. Z. S. 1869, p. 278, ibid. p. 408, with a woodcut-illustration from life, ibid. p. 507- Pl. X L I . of the same volume contains a coloured lithograph of the animal drawn from life J. * Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xv. 1827. Tab. ii. contains figures of the feet and teeth. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the truncation of the cusps of the molar teeth, attributed by Hardwicke to original structure, and as such carefully described among the generic characters, is certainly due to attrition from use. In the present example, as well as in that figured by D e Blainville, the apices of these cusps are perfect. f Modified by Van der Hoeven (Handbuch der Zoologie) into Mlurus. j Mr. Hodgson remarks that he never observed the specimens of .ZEluri kept alive by him " employ the bands, as the Raccoons and Coatis and Bears do, to facilitate the process of eating." Bearing this remark in mind, it m a y be noticed with surprise that, in the figure alluded to above, the animal is represented as holding a bunch of fruit in its fore paw; but this was a circumstance so constantly noted during its residence in the Zoological Gardens, that it was thought worth while to commemorate the habit in the portrait. (See Mr. Bartlett's " Remarks on the Habits of the Panda in Captivity," P. Z. S. 1870, p. 769.) |