MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 2r.r, 



defined by Blanford. It would .appear that M. aurita inhabits a tract of mount 

 ainous country extending from Nepal, through Assam (including the Naga 

 hills, from which the specimen described by Major Wall came), through the 

 hills noi'th of Bhamo to Southern China ; and is also found as far south as 

 Karennee. M.javanica meanwhile occupies the Malay Peninsula, Cochin China. 

 Cambodia. Burma up to the lower ranges near Bhamo ; and is also found in 

 Sylhet and Tipperah. Now it will be seen that between Burma proper and 

 Sylhet and Tipperah there lie several ranges of mountains, namely : Arakan 

 hills, Lushai hills, Chin hills, and Pakkoku Chin hills ; and the (|nestion at 

 once suggests itself, is Manisjavaiiica found in these hills ? 



I put this forward then as a theory, that these are the hills referred to by 

 Blanf ord in a general way as the " hills south of Assam " about which he 

 expressed his uncertainty. In passing, it may be worthy of note that the 

 localities assigned to j\f. aurita are all, with the possible exception of Amoy 

 mountainous districts, lying about, but chiefly north of the Tropic. 



My attention was first drawn to this subject when I was studying the intri- 

 cacies of the Chin language by a curious superstition on the part of the Chins, 

 according to which it is an exceedingly evil omen to meet a pangolin (sapn) 

 by day. Of all Chin superstitions I regard this one as perhaps the most fully 

 justified, the subject being as uncouth in appearance as it is rare to behold by 

 day : thus furnishing another instance of the fact that man as a rule fears 

 what he does not know and understand. For sometime my curiosity remained 

 unsatisfied as to the nature of this dread creature only to be mentioned with 

 bated breath, who lived under the ground where also the evil spirits live, who 

 had a long nose, a long tail, was covered with scales, was armed with long 

 claws and had withal a most baleful glance, but at length I discovered in a 

 dictionary of the Chin (Lai) language that "suppu " (sic) was an ''armadillo " I 

 Curiously enough the dictionary was not written by an American either. 



To cut a long story short, on about 10th October 1908, a Chin came to my 

 house with a fine male specimen of Jt. aurita, caught alive early the same 

 morning in a cultivation near here [Haka] at an elevation of about 6,000 feet 

 above sea level. 



Its dimensions, weight, etc., which I took very carefully, were as follows : — 

 '" Length (from tip of nose to base of tail) 30 inches. 

 Tail length, 10 inches. 

 Circumference of tail at base, 11 inches. 

 Median fore claw, nearly 2^^ inches. ' 



Median hind claw, less than 1 inch. 

 Largest scale, 2 inches in diameter. 

 Weight, 17 lbs. 



* This measurement was taken over the curve of its back while the animal was partially 

 rolled up, which may account for its magnitude. Skins are, I think, very frequently 

 misleading in measurements — sometimes stretching considerably and sometimes shrinkiLe. 



