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Show 1887.] NOMENCLATURE OF INDIAN MAMMALS. 633 d'ou Buffon a derive celui de mangouste, que nous conservons comme nom generique." This is said, moreover, to be the animal noticed by Kaempfer and others, and recorded by Linnaeus. In the note on p. 139, where Latin names are given, this species is called Ichneumon mungo. I believe that Geoffroy understood by this name, and not by I. griseus, the Common Indian Mungoose; and I shall show that this was the view of Frederic Cuvier, Geoffroy's collaborator in the ' Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes.' The mixing up of the "Mangouste de I'Inde " and the "Mangouste a bandes " is due to Buffon and Schreber. Some years ago I expressed the opinion 1 that the oldest name for the Common Indian Mungoose was Viverra mungo of Gmelin. This name, which was evidently the origin of Geoffroy's Ichneumon mungo, has been by reeent writers either ignored or applied to an African species, Crossarchus fasciatus. That several species were referred to in the descriptions quoted by Gmelin is unquestionable ; and there is good reason for believing that one of these was C. fasciatus; but I am inclined to look upon the name as really given to the Indian Mungoose, for it is applied to the Viverra ichneumon (i of Linnaeus and Schreber. Now the V. ichneumon /3 of Linnaeus's twelfth edition, the Mustela glauca of the fifth, and the Mungos of his 'Ameanitates Academicae,' are all founded on the Viverra mungo of Kaempfer, said to be called " Mungutia " by the Indians and Mungo by the Portuguese. Kaempfer visited India amongst other places, and gave in his work " a general account of the Indian Mungoose. It is probable that his remarks refer partly also to H. javanicus. The question, however, is to determine which is the species of Herpestes known in the country it inhabits by the name Mungutia, or by some term of which Mungo or Mungos is a corruption, for this must clearly be the species to which the names of Kaempfer, Linnaeus, and Gmelin were intended to apply. And as the Anglo-Indian term Mungoose is evidently of similar origin, its derivation if ascertained must elucidate the question. In Colonel Yule's recently published ' Hobson Jobson' the term Mungoose is traced to a Telugu word mangisu. Sykes3, Elliot4, and Jerdon 5 state that the word mangus itself is Mahratti, and, according to Jerdon, Hindi also in Southern India. I do not attach much importance to this, as it is just possible the name may not have existed originally in either language, being probably Dravidian, whilst both languages are of Sanscrit derivation. The Hindi name in Northern India in Ngul, but I know that mangus is pretty -generally understood by those natives who come much in contact with Europeans. But to return to the dialects of Southern India. Elliot6 gives Mungli as Canarese ; and Kelaart7 Moogatea as Cingalese. In all probability, as so frequently happens in Iudian languages, a nasal n before the g in Cingalese has escaped Kelaart's 1 Eastern Persia, ii. p. 42. 2 Amcen. Exot. p. 574. 3 P Z. S. 1831, p. 102. 4 Madr. Journ. Lit. Sci. x. p. 102. 5 Mammals of India, p. 132. 8 Loc. cit. 7 Prodromus Faun. Zeyl. p. 41. |