OCR Text |
Show 1886.] THE HUME COLLECTION. 55 I. T H E S A M B H A R COLLECTION. The collection from Sambhar, Rajpootana, was formed in the winter of 1877-78 by Mr. R. M. Adam, to whom ornithologists are indebted for the "Notes on the Birds of the Sambhar Lake," published in 1873 l. The interest possessed by such a series as the present consists in the aid it gives in fixing the north-westerly distribution of the commoner Indian mammals, a point on which we are as yet exceedingly ignorant, and for which authentic lists of the mammals of different localities are much needed. For this purpose Sambhar is an especially useful locality, as it is in this region that the fauna begins to lose its ordinary Indian character and to show signs of the desert influences so marked further west in Sind and the Punjaub, The collection consists of 42 skins referable to 19 species. The skulls have all been cleaned and sent separately, and too much credit cannot be given to Mr. Adam for the care and trouble he has taken in preparing this valuable part of his mammal collection. 1. FELIS CHAUS, Giild. a. 6* • Sambhar, 2/2/78. b. <$ . Kishungurh, 26/12/77. 2. FELIS TORCIUATA, F. CUV. a. 2- Sambhar, 17/12/77. 3. FELIS ORNATA, Gr. a-e, 4 S and 1 $ . Sambhar, 12/77 and 1/78. /. $ . Kishungurh, 28/12/77. Mr. Adam obtained no less than six specimens of this rare and beautiful species, which has been hitherto represented in the national collection by only a single half-grown individual collected by Capt. Boys, and by a skull from the Salt Range, obtained by Mr. Theobald. Mr. Adam's series is particularly valuable, as it proves incontestably the validity of the species, which has been confounded by Blyth, Jerdon, and others with F. torquata. 4. VlVERRICULA MALACCENSIS, F. Cuv. a. 6 • Sambhar, 17/12/77. This seems to be the most westerly Indian locality from which the Lesser Civet has been recorded, but the species turns up again on the other side of the Indian Ocean in Socotra, the Comoro Islands, and Madagascar, to all of which it has probably been introduced by natives. 5. PARADOXURUS NIGER, Desm. a-c. Sambhar, 8 and 9/77. 1 Stray Feathers, i. p. 361, 1873. |