THE ZOOLOaX OF BEITISH INDIA. S 



curatorship of the Asiatic Society's Museum is a matter of history, 

 and we believe few occurrences have given greater satisfaction 

 amongst the friends of science than the well-earned pension bestowed 

 upon him by the Indian G-overnment, upon his recent return in 

 broken health and with shattered constitution to this country. 



When Mr. Blyth arrived at Calcutta, the Society's collection of 

 Mammals consisted, as we have already said, of some 30 or 40 speci- 

 mens, which might, as we have been told, have been all arranged on a 

 moderate sized table. Before his departure, as the present catalogue 

 tells us, the collection embraced 585 species of IMammals — many of 

 them represented by large and well-selected series of specimens of 

 different sexes and ages, and from different localities. The fault of the 

 collection now is, we believe, that it is too crowded, and that the proper 

 care of it weighs too heavily upon the finances of the Society. This 

 evU, as we learn from the recent numbers of the Society's Journal, 

 is proposed to be remedied by the transfer of the whole of the 

 Museum to the Grovernment upon certain conditions, whereby a 

 new building will bo obtained, and the collection will form the 

 nucleus of a Public Museum of Natural History for British India. 

 Por this purpose the Society's collection will be of the utmost value, 

 as containing a very large number of typical specimens of every 

 class. The series of Indian Mammals, to which our catalogue refers, 

 although not quite complete, is very nearly so. As we turn over its 

 pages we propose to call our readers' attention to the principal 

 features of the Mammal- fauna of the Indian Peninsula, as they 

 are thus brought before us, neglecting, for the present, the specimens 

 from other parts of the world. 



The typical Quadrumana are represented in India by species 

 of three different types — namely, the genera HylohateSy Macacus and 

 Semnopithecus. Of the Gibbons {Hylohates) no species occurs in the 

 Peninsula of India proper. On the eastern side of the bay of 

 Bengal, however, two of this genus are found — the S. hooloolc and 

 the H. lar. The former is the provaleut species in Arracan, and 

 " extends thence over all the hill-ranges of Sylhet and Assam," 

 whilst the AVhite-handed Gibbon {S. lar), also found in Assam, 

 ranges southwards down the Malayan Peninsula to Malacca. 



Of the Macaques, the well known " Toque," or Bonnet-Monkey 

 {M. Q'ddiatus) is a common inhabitant of the forests of Southern 

 India, ranging on the Coromandel side as far north as the Godavery. 

 In Ceylon this species is replaced by the nearly allied M. pi/eafiis, 



