OCR Text |
Show 794 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [Nov. 3, peninsula of India and Ceylon. It ranges through all those parts of India that are well wooded, and is found equally about human habitations and in wild forest. The question of nomenclature and the distinction between this and the next species will be discussed under the latter. Synonymy. The origin of the names Viverra nigra, V. bondar, and Paradoxurus typus has already been mentioned. P. leucopus ot Ogilby has been classed as distinct by several writers ; and by Gray (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 542) it is said to be probably a variety of P. grayi. The vibrissae are, however, described as black, whilst in P. grayi they are always white. The species was of peculiar coloration, with a band round the loins, the feet, and the tip of the tail pure white. But pied or piebald specimens are not of infrequent occurrence in the present species: they are mentioned by Blyth, Jerdon, and Tickell, and as the remainder of Ogilby's description, and especially the presence of long coarse hairs tipped with black on the head, neck, shoulders, rump, and tail, agree with P. niger, there can be no hesitation in classing P. leucopus as a partially albino individual of that species. P. pennantii was named from a drawing in General Hardwicke's collection, said to have been taken from an animal found in the Upper Provinces of Bengal, where P. niger is the only species found. The figure of Platyschista pallasii resembles P. niger in coloration and in the want of any distinct pale frontal band. The back was said to be banded, but the banding represented in the figure is very ill-marked and indefinite. The identity of Hodgson's P. hirsutus with P. bondar has been generally accepted. The only difference between the northern race (P. bondar v. hirsutus) and the southern (P. niger v. typus= hermaphroditus apud Gray), so far as I can see, is that the latter is more ashy and blacker, the former browner in colour. The reason why Blyth and Jerdon, to whose opinions I should attach great weight, have classed P. bondar as distinct whilst uniting P. niger and P. hermaphroditus, was, I believe, that neither of these naturalists had ever seen any of the specimens called P. bondar or P. hirsutus by Gray, Hodgson, and others. Jerdon's description of P. bondar is evidently copied from Hodgson's account of P. hirsutus. 2. PARADOXURUS HERMAPHRODITUS. 1 La Genette de France, Buff. Hist. Nat. Supp. iii. p. 237, pi. 47 (1776). Viverra hermaphrodita, Pall. Schreb. Saugeth. iii. p. 426 (1778); Zimm. Geol. Gesch. ii. p. 285 ; Bodd. Elench. An. p. 82 ; Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 90 ; Shaw, Gen. Zool. i. pt. 2, p. 400. V. prehensilis, Blainv., Desm. M a m . p. 208(1820) ; nee V. prehensilis, Kerr, An. King. p. 169(1792). V. musanga, Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 252 (1820); Desm. Mam. Suppl. p. 539. V. musanga, var. javanica, Horsfield, Zool. Res. Java, pi. (1824). Paradoxurus typus, ft. sumatranus, Fischer, Syn. M a m . p. 159 |