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Show 1887.] NOMFNCLATURE OF INDIAN MAMMALS. 631 term "Felis bengalensis, Desmarest," and in his 'Catalogue of the Mammals and Birds of Burma,' F. undata, Desmarest. The Felis undata of Desmarest was described first and very briefly in the Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. (1816), vi. p. 115, no. 27, as Le petit chat sauvage de VInde. It was said to be smaller than F. javanensis, its fur to exhibit waves rather than spots ("son pelage presente des ondes plutot que des taches"), and it was compared to the Wild Indian Cat of Vosmaer, except that the latter was figured of a more bluish tinge. In Desmarest's ' Mammalogie,' published in 1820, further details were given, the essential character being, " Pelage d'un gris sale, avec des nombreuses petites taches noiratres, un peu alongees." This might perhaps refer to F. viverrina, but the description is palpably at secondhand, being founded on a specimen of a kitten brought by Peron from Java, and noticed by Cuvier in the ' Ossemens Fossiles.' It is clear that this animal was not F. bengalensis. The Wild Cat of Vosmaer is called by him " Japansche Bosch-Kat," and the figure has not the least resemblance to any Indian wild cat. Indeed the coloration is unlike that of any wild animal, and the specimen was doubtless a domestic cat or the offspring of one run wild. But even if the term F. undata were applicable, it must give way to the much older F. bengalensis ii, as appears to me to be the case, the latter can be shown to be really applicable to the same species ; for this name dates, not from Desmarest's article published in 1816, as Blyth appears to have supposed, butfrom Kerr's'Animal Kingdom' (p. 151), published in 1792. The name was founded on the Bengal Cat of Pennant (Hist. Quadr. p. 272), described from an animal brought alive to England, and which was said to have swum on board a ship at anchor off the coast of Bengal. This circumstance led Jerdon (Mamm. Ind. p. 106) to suggest that Pennant's Cat was a specimen of F. viverrina ; but Pennant's description shows that the species was really the Leopard-cat, and it is more likely that the story of its capture was incorrect. The animal was described as of a beautiful pale yellowish-brown colour above, white below, and as rather less than a common cat in size, none of which characters agree with those of F. viverrina, whilst all apply to the Leopard-cat. VII. On the Scientific Name of the Common Indian Mungoose (Herpestes griseus, auct., nee Ichneumon griseus, Geoff.). Although there has been by no means a general agreement as to the name to be applied to the common Mungoose of the Indian Peninsula, the Grey Ichneumon of some, a considerable majority of English naturalists have identified the animal with the Ichneumon griseus of Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, or, which comes to the same, with the Herpestes griseus of Desmarest. This specific name griseus had been adopted by zoologists in British India until recently, when Dr. Anderson (An. Zool. Res. p. 181) rejected it in favour of Wagner's later name pallidus, because Geoffroy's Ichneumeon griseus "originally included an African species." I agree with Dr. |
