MAMMALOGY OF THE HIMALAYAS. Ixv 
of a day’s sport was recorded by the Imperial Historiographer in the annals of the empire. The same 
indifference to climate characterises the Lion in Africa; in the time of Herodotus and Aristotle, he 
was common among the coldest mountains of Macedon; at the present day he is as often found among 
the snowy peaks of the Atlas, or on the chilly slopes of the Snueuberg, as in the desert of Barca, or on 
the banks of the Gareip. Travellers should look for him to the east of the Brahmapootra, as though 
not known to inhabit any part of Eastern India, the Burmese are said to have figures which can be 
intended for no other animal, and which can only have been drawn from the living model. The Tiger 
and Leopard are well known to inhabit every part of the Himalayas, even to the line of perpetual 
congelation: they exist equally in Japan, in the Caucasus, and in the Altai Mountains in Southern 
Siberia.* The Tiger of Bockhara is less than the Bengal variety, and chiefly confined to the Valley of 
the Oxus ;+ whilst in Japan he is covered with a thick coat of long soft fur, to protect him from the 
rigours of that northern climate. The Cheetah is said by Mr. Hodgson} to occur chiefly among the 
lower valleys of the Himalayas, but Pallas found it as far north as the Caspian Sea and the deserts of 
the Khirgis Tartars, so that it may possibly ascend the Hills to a greater height than has yet been 
suspected. Lieut. Smith mentions a small dark coloured variety of the Leopard, called Luckur-backer, 
extremely fierce, and common in every part of the Hills. 
Among the smaller species of the genus Felis, the Moormi Cat (Felis moormansis) first described by 
Mr. Hodgson, and hitherto observed only by that gentleman, as likewise the Felis bengalensis or 
nepalensis, are stated to inhabit the middle terraces of Nepal.t The Felis Viverrinus, first 
described by Mr. Bennett§ in 1833, and three years afterwards by Mr. Hodgson, under the nearly 
identical name of Felis Viverriceps,|| inhabits the lower terraces and valleys of the Turai. Felis Chaus, 
(called Biraloo in Nepal), of which I have compared numerous African and Indian specimens, extends over 
every part of the Hills: it is the Felis erythrotus of Mr. Hodgson ;|| and there is a specimen of a Hima- 
layan Cat in the Museum of the Zoological Society, so closely resembling the common Wild Cat of 
Europe, that it differs only in the absence of the dark transverse and longitudinal stripes which mark 
that species, and which may not improbably be a mere effect of locality. 
Mr. Hodgson] has described three species of Paradoxuri as inhabitants of the Southern, Central, and 
Northern regions of Nepal respectively, two of which at least I have seen from the more Western Hills ; 
P. Bondar (P. hirsutus, Hodg.) is confined to the Turai; P. nepalensis, Hodg. frequents the middle 
ranges of the mountains, and P. larvatus, (P. lanigerus? Hodg.) is only found in the higher regions. 
Two species of Mungoos (Herpestes) likewise inhabit the lower terraces; H. griseus, called Nyool in 
Nepal, does not extend beyond the Turai, but H. Edwardsii (H. auropunctata, Hodg.)§ ascends the 
central hills; whilst Viverra Rasse and indica, and Viverra raat Me _ to ee the same 
localities respectively. ; nee 
The true Mustela, a genus proper to more northern latitudes, abound in the tdines, where 
there appear to be many different species, some of which, according to Mr. Hodgson, differ but little from 
those of Northern Europe and Asia. It is to be remarked, however, that they have never been properly 
compared ; but it is interesting to find this additional instance of the relation between generic forms and 
climate. In the central region, besides Mustela flavigula, Mr. Hodgson mentions two closely allied 
species, one larger and of a fuller habit of body, (query, Paradoxurus larvatus?); the other, which 
he has described under the name of Mustela Kathiah, is much smaller, and often domesticated by the 
Nepalese for the purpose of destroying vermin, and sometimes even large animals.** This appears to _ Se 
be the Kukar of Kemaon, where it likewise frequents the villages, burrows in the walls of ——e — is : 
" * Pallas Zoog, Ros.,i. 16. + Burnes’ Travels, ii. 178. ¢ Zool. Proc., ii. 97. § Zool. Proc., i. 68. 
| Journ. Asiat. Soc., v. 232. q Asiat. Res., xix, I. 72. ** Journ. As. Soc.. » iv. 703. as a ee pe 
