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Show 1885.] GENUS PARADOXURUS. 783 are said to have been whitish, which precludes the idea of the specimen having belonged to the common P. niger ; and although it was probably a Paradoxurus that was described, this is far from certain, the presence of a groove beneath the penis being the only indication of generic affinities. Nothing is said of a naked area around the genitals nor of the characters of the feet. It is true that it is difficult to tell what other animal from Ceylon could have been described by Pallas, but a hundred years ago localities were by no means trustworthy, as is shown in the case of V. hermaphrodita. The Musk or Musky Weasel of Pennant's 'History of Quadrupeds' (3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 72, published in 1793) has been referred to a species of Paradoxurus by Gray \ and probably with justice. The description was taken from the drawing of a Bengal animal in the possession of Sir Elijah Impey. Beyond copies and translations of Pallas's descriptions in the compilations of Zimmermann, Gmelin, Boddaert, and Shaw, I can find nothing further published on the subject until 1820". In that year Desmarest's ' Manimalogie' appeared, with descriptions of Viverra prehensilis, p. 208, and V. bondar, p. 210, founded by De Blainville on figures in the library of the East-India Company, London. The drawings are fortunately still in existence and are easily recognized ; they are amongst a series made for Dr. Buchanan Hamilton by native artists, and have written on them the names Lchneumon prehensilis and Lchneumon bondar, which were apparently given by Buchanan Hamilton himself. Moreover the Bengali names are written on each drawing in the ordinary cursive Bengali character; and as this character is peculiar to Bengal, it serves to show where the drawings were made, and probably that the animals represented were well known in the country, though but little value can be attached to this evidence. I am indebted to Mr. Long for deciphering the names. The drawing of Lchneumon bondar, the Bengali names assigned to which are bhdm and bhondar, represents the common Indian Paradoxurus unmistakably. This is important, as will be seen presently, because Jerdon has classed P. bondar as distinct. The figure of Lchneumon prehensilis, of which the Bengali name is given as Bdyhddnkh, represents, I believe, the striped race or species, which I refer to P. hermaphroditus, common in Lower Bengal and at the foot of the Himalayas. The Paradoxurus prehensilis, figured in the Society's • Proceedings' for 1877, pi. lxxi., is, however, I think, a different form, Arctogale leucotis. 1 P. Z. S. 1832, p. 65. 2 Dr. Gray, in his 'Catalogue of the Carnivorous, Pachydermatous, and Edentate Mammalia in the British Museum,' p. 77, footnote, states that M. de Blainville saw the drawings collected by Buchanan Hamilton, at the India House, in 1816, and published a paper in the Bull. Soc. Philom. for that year, with descriptions of Viverra prehensilis and other species. There is no such paper by De Blainville in the 'Bulletin de la Societe Philomathique' for 1816, nor can I find any reference to any such paper amongst the Royal Society's list of De Blainville's contributions to the periodical named and to other journals, whilst Desmarest makes no reference to a previous publication of the name. 51* |