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Show 784 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [Nov. 3, It may be here remarked that De Blainville's name Viverra prehensilis cannot be applied to any species of Paradoxurus, because there is a much earlier use of the same term Viverra prehensilis by Kerr in 1792 (An. King. p. 169) for the Kinkajou (Cercoleptes caudivolvulus). A third species in Desmarest's ' Mammalogie' is Viverra nigra, p. 208, founded upon skins sent by M . Leschenault de Latour from Pondicherry under the French name of La Marte des palmiers or palm-marten. Although the description was supposed by Otto to be that of Arctictis binturong, there can be, I think, no question but that the skin described by Desmarest was that of the common Indian Paradoxurus. The generic name Paradoxurus was proposed in the succeeding year, 1821, by F. Cuvier in the ' Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes ' for an animal living in the Menagerie at Paris, and sent by M. Lechenault1 from Pondicherry as La Martre des palmiers, clearly the same species as that, a skin of which in the previous year had formed the type of Desmarest's Viverra nigra. Cuvier proposed a new specific title, Paradoxurus typus, for his animal; and as the name was accompanied by a coloured figure, which, although far from a good representation, is fairly recognizable, this name has been more generally used than any of the earlier specific titles. The generic name was founded on the circumstance of the animal carrying its long tail in a coil, a peculiarity that appears to be very common in caged specimens belonging to this genus, but which has never, so far as I can learn, been observed in the wild state. That the coiling is due to a diseased condition is evident from the circumstance that many animals thus affected are unable to uncoil their tails. In the ' Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,' vol. ix. p. 41 (1822), F. Cuvier added two additional species, P. albifrons and P. aureus. The former, from a drawing by Duvaucel of an animal in the Menagerie at Barrackpoor Park, near Calcutta, was not a Paradoxurus at all, but Arctictis binturong ; the latter was taken from a young animal, preserved in spirit, of unknown origin. As it was coloured of a golden tawny (fauve dore) throughout, the only species to which it can be referred is the Ceylonese animal subsequently called P. zeylanicus by Gray. Long subsequently, in 1839, F. Cuvier, the younger, figured and described in one of the numbers of the ' Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes' a specimen said to have been brought from Nubia by a Mr. Burton, under the name of Paradoxurus nubia. The figure may have been taken from a typical variety of P. hermaphroditus. Viverra musanga was described by Raffles in 1822, and subsequently referred to Paradoxurus in Horsfield's ' Zoological Researches in Java.' Another species, P. leucopus, was added by Ogilby, in the •Zoological Journal' of 1828, vol. iv. p. 304. Gulo larvatus, desciibed originally by Hamilton Smith, was made the type of a new genus, Paguma, by Gray, in the Society's ' Proceedings,' Part 1 1 Doubtless the same as is mentioned by Desmarest, thouoh his name is spelt with a slight difference |
