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Show 1885.] GENUS PARADOXURUS. 797 Dimensions. Nearly the same as those of P. niger. Cantor says in the largest specimen he measured the head and body together were 24| inches long. In another the head and body 20|, tail 16|. In a Tenasserim specimen measured by Ticked the head and body measured 20^ inches, tail 20f. Horsfield gives 22 and 18. All the above measurements were, I believe, made on fresh specimens. Distribution. P. hermaphroditus ranges throughout the countries east of the Bay of Bengal-Burma, Siam, Malay peninsula, &c. It is found also in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and some of the smaller Indo-Malay islands, extending to Ceram and even the Ke Islands (P. Z. S. 1858, p. 113), but perhaps introduced. In Lower Bengal and at the foot of the Himalayas, in Nepal and Sikhim, some of the Paradoxuri appear to belong to this species, or to be intermediate between it and P. niger. Before proceeding to discuss the synonymy it is necessary to deal with the differences between this and the last species. Although the two have been classed apart by a great majority of naturalists, by all in fact except Blyth and Jerdon, it is, I think, quite as much a question of convenience as of facts whether the Indian and Malay types of the common Paradoxurus should be considered species or subspecies, that is geographical races. Both are variable, but the vast majority of specimens are readily distinguished by some or all of the following characters :- 1. The back is usually striped in P. hermaphroditus, unstriped in P. niger. 2. There is generally a distinct grey or whitish transverse frontal band in P. hermaphroditus, not in P. niger. 3. The fur in P. niger is usually longer, more ragged, and provided on the upper parts with long black tips, which are wanting in P. hermaphroditus ; in the latter the fur is generally of more even length. 4. The inner lobe of the upper sectorial tooth is much larger in P. hermaphroditus, so that the breadth of the tooth at right angles to the outer margin is about j8 0 the length of that margin, whilst in P. niger the proportion is y7^-1. The inner lobe is, as a rule, not quite at the distal extremity of the tooth in the former, and the inner margin from the inner lobe to the hinder extremity is straight; in P. niger the inner lobe is quite at the distal extremity, and the inner margin concave. 5. The muzzle is shorter in P. hermaphroditus than in P. niger. There is, however, variation in all these characters-not one can be said to be constant. So far as I have seen, the shape of the upper sectorial is on the whole the best character, but even here I can find, in the large collection of skulls in the British Museum, a complete or nearly complete passage from one form to the other. But I believe the difficulty chiefly arises from the circumstance that whereas the animals inhabiting the peninsula of India (from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin) and Ceylon differ but little from each 1 Mean of two measurements of P. hermaphroditus and four of P. niger. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1885, No. LII. 52 |
