OCR Text |
Show 782 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [N applying to a form of Paradoxurus is one by Buffon, who, in the Supplement to his ' Histoire Naturelle,' described an animal that he called " La Genette de France," and evidently believed to be a French species of Genet. As was, however, shown by F. Cuvier, the animal described and figured, which was from an unknown locality, and had been purchased in London, was probably an Indian Paradoxurus; but even in this case the identification is somewhat doubtful, for there were, according to Buffon, traces of ambulations on the tail. The next notices are in Schreber's ' Sangethiere,' where descriptions by Pallas are given of animals named by the latter naturalist Viverra hermaphrodita and V. zeylonensis. The following is a translation of the description in German of V. hermaphrodita, Schreb. Saugeth. iii. p. 426 :- "The muzzle as far as and above the eyes is black, so are also the long bristles of the heard (Barte, which would include the vibrissa) and above the eyes, the ears, the throat throughout its whole breadth, and the feet. In front of the ears the black has a light grey margin. A white spot exists under the eye, and another amongst the vibrissa?, almost as in the Genet. The hair is long, grey near the skin, black at the tip, consequently the fur assumes a mixed, but more of a black colour. Over the back run three quite black stripes. The belly is lighter. The tail is longer than the body, black at the end. The nails are yellow. "Over the penis there extends a longish naked spot as far as the anus. Where this spot begins, the soft white skin makes a double fold with a raised division lying between. This has occasioned the animal to be exhibited to ignorant people as a hermaphrodite." The description leaves no reasonable doubts that the animal was a Paradoxurus. The size is said to have been between that of a Civet Cat and that of a Genet. The description agrees well with the common Paradoxurus of the Malay countries, now generally known as P. musanga. The presence of the stripes on the back shows that the animal was in all probability not the Indian form (P. niger, v. typus). The Malay species has usually a broad white or whitish band across the forehead, instead of merely a " light grey margin " ; but this is an extremely variable character. The specimen, it is true, was said to he from Barbary, but no North-African mammal corresponds to the description. The Viverra zeylonensis of Pallas2 has also been identified by Gray and others with a species of Paradoxurus found in Ceylon, but in this case the identification is very much more doubtful. The Ceylon species is of a uniform dull rufous or ferruginous colour throughout, whilst in Pallas's description the coloration was said to be grey above, overspread with brown, below paler, blackish on the hinder parts of the back and on the tail; and there is nothing by which the animal can be satisfactorily determined. The vibrissae 1 Hist. Nat. Mamm., notes to pi. 186, La Martre des Palmiers ou Pouyoune. 3 Schreb. Saugeth. iii. p. 451. |