MAMMALOGY OF THE HIMALAYAS. xiii 
fectly described, though mentioned by every tourist as extremely abundant in the higher regions of the 
Himalayas. Capt. Skinner* met with it in the neighbourhood of Bhairo Ghati; Traill+ found it in 
Kemaon, though he says it is peculiar to Bhot; and it is probably the Brown Bear mentioned by Mr. 
Fraser :{ so that upon the whole it appears, that whilst the Common Sloth Bear (Ursus labiatus) is 
on all hands admitted to be confined to the sultry plains of India, the Reech (Ursus thibetanws) 
succeeds it, as the legitimate representative of the European Bear (Ursus Arctos), and of its American 
analogue (Ursus americanus), in the middle or temperate regions of the hills, to be itself replaced 
among the frozen peaks of the higher mountains, by the Barji, or Yellow Bear of the Himalayas 
(Ursus isabellinus), a species in all respects analogous, in its colour and habitat, as well as in its 
decidedly carnivorous appetite, to its congener, the Polar or Sea Bear of the North (Ursus maritimus). 
Various animals, either belonging or closely allied to the Gluttons and Badgers (Gulo and Meles), 
pre-eminently northern forms, likewise inhabit the elevated ranges of the Himalayas. Among the 
lower terraces we have the Ratel (Rattelus mellivorus), called Peejoo by the Hindoos, which is common 
over all the plains of Northern India, and differs from the same animal, as found at the Cape of Good 
Hope, only in being of a lighter colour on the back. 'This wide distribution of the Carnivora, and 
the common occurrence of the same species in India, and the most remote parts of Africa, will be more 
particularly mentioned in the following article: Mr. Hodgson,§ under the erroneous impression that the 
Peejoo, which the Nepalese call Bharsiah, was an unknown animal, and evidently misled by some 
imperfect or faulty account of its dentition, has recently described it as a new genus under the name of 
Ursitaxus inauritus ; but the species has long been well known in Europe. M. F. Cuvier figured, 
and accurately described its teeth in the “ Dents des Mammiferes,” so long ago as the year 1825; and 
the late Mr. Bennett described and figured the animal itself in 1830, from an Indian specimen then 
living in the menagerie of the Zoological Society.|| The Balloo-soor, (perhaps more properly Bhalloo- 
soor ?), Meles coliaris,4{ which M. F. Cuvier likewise elevated to the rank of a generic form, under 
the name of Arctonyx, upon the faith of a distorted native drawing sent to him by M. Duvaucel, is a 
real Badger, and was described and figured by the celebrated Bewick, at least thirty years before M. 
Duvaucel’s visit to India. It inhabits the northern plains of Hindostan, and probably ascends the 
hills, but of this fact I have no certain information. Of the Gluttons, properly so called, the Gulo 
nepalensis of Mr. Hodgson, which does not differ specifically from the Gulo orientalis of Dr. Hors- 
field, the only distinction being in a lighter shade of ground colour, inhabits the lower terraces of the 
hills; whilst the Wah, or Chitwah (Ailurus fulgens) and the Benturong (Arctitis albifrons)** are 
said to be confined to the Kachar, and regions bordering on the snow-line. As regards the Wah, there 
is no doubt about the truth of the habitat here assigned to it; but the Benturong is a native of the 
Indian Archipelago, and of the Peninsula of Malacca; and I strongly suspect, that it has been con- 
founded with some other animal, poring: with Paradowurus bondar, or some closely allied species. 
The habitat of Bootan, assigned to it in the Regne Animal, is altogether erroneous. — _ Messrs. Gray | 
and Isidore Geoffroy have proposed to consider the Gulo nepalensis as the type of anew genus, the 
former under the name of Helictis moschata, the latter under that of Melogale personata. = 
CARNIVORA DIGITIGRADA. 
It was mentioned incidentally in the preceding article, that many species of ian ors doa ee 
to India, and the Continent of Africa ; and it is not a little singular, that this migration appears to have 
— — from west to east, and never in the a direction ; or, in othe hat 
& ckion te SR: t Asiat. Des, xvi. 16. 
" $ Journey, &e. p. 351. § Res. Asiat, Soc. xix., and Journal of Asiat. Soc., v. en. e 
) Gard, and Menag., &c. i. 13. € Penny Cyclopzedia, iii. 264. -* Mr, Hodgson, in ot Pes 
