MAMMALOGY OF THE HIMALAYAS. lix 
and the stratagems which they employ to capture their prey or to escape from their enemies; the nature of 
their food; whether they hibernate or migrate from place to place, according to the season; whether 
they are turned to any account by the natives, or are capable of yielding any products applicable to the 
purposes of commerce or domestic economy. These, and other similar inquiries, of the utmost impor- 
tance to the philosophical Zoologist, are within the ordinary range of daily observation to most gentle- 
men in India, with respect to many rare and interesting animals; whilst they are, generally speaking, 
attended with so little trouble, and at the same time productive of so much mental recreation and instruc- 
tion, that it is only surprising how much they have been heretofore neglected. One principal cause of 
the apathy which our countrymen in India have shown, if not in making, at least in recording, their 
observations on various branches of Natural History, may, indeed, have arisen from the want of some 
common central institution, where they could be properly arranged and published; but the establish- 
ment of the Zoological Society of London, and the unrivalled resources which it possesses, offer 
facilities for this purpose, which it is hoped will hereafter be made extensively available by Englishmen 
in all parts of the world. It is scarcely necessary to add, that any interesting details relative to the 
habits and manners of foreign animals, observed in their native climates, will be gladly received from 
any quarter, and published in the Proceedings of the Society ; especially if accompanied by the skins 
of the animals (the skulls, legs, and tail, being carefully preserved), for the purpose of identification. 
The Journal of the Asiatic Society contains numerous articles on Natural History, but its contributions 
in this department are fewer than could be wished: whilst the Bengal Sporting Magazine, hitherto in 
a great measure confined to mere journals of shooting excursions, might likewise be made a ready and 
appropriate medium for the publication of such observations; and the contributions of its various 
correspondents prove them abundantly qualified for this higher and more important object. 
These introductory observations being premised, I shall now proceed to enumerate such Mammals as 
I know to inhabit the great Himalayan Chain; and without following any formal arrangement, shall 
throw them into such natural groups or families, as appear best suited to illustrate their geographical 
distribution with respect to climate and temperature, the principal object of the present Memoir. 
QUADRUMANA. 
Throughout Bengal and the northern provinces of British India, there appear to be only two species 
of Simice, the Hoonuman (Semnopithecus Entellus), and the Bhunder (Papio Rhesus) ; both of which 
ascend the hills to a very considerable elevation during the siminer heats, and return again to the 
plains at the commencement of the cold season. This migration is a very interesting fact in the history 
of these Simie ; it is the only instance of a similar phenomenon, which has been recorded of this family 
of Mammals, and may become of great value in its application to geological reasoning on the climate 
and temperature of Europe during the tertiary epochs, i in the deposits of which periods the bones of 
Apes and Monkeys have lately been found, associated with the remains of Pachydermata, and other 
inhabitants of more tropical latitudes. The Hoonuman, called Lungoor by the Hill tribes, is not 
unfrequently found at an elevation of from 9,000 to 11,000 feet, as among the Pine forests in the 
neighbourhood of Choor, and sometimes even at the verge of the snow-line. Nay, it even appears to 
have succeeded in crossing the mountains ; Turner* mentions having seen a large troop of these monkeys 
and is capable of subsisting in a state of nature, at a considerable elevation, and a comparatively low — 
temperature, is sufficiently evinced by these facts, as well as by the testimony of Fraser,+ Tre it 
* Journey to Thibet, p. 147. + Journey in the Himalayas, p. 351. 
in Bootan, where they are held in the same veneration as in Hindustan; and that it has found its way, ees 
