298 



M U S Q U I.T O. 



Zoological Society of London in 1831, this animal is 

 represented as being numerous in the woods of the 

 Western Ghauts, but it does not descend into the 

 low country toward the coast. The Mahrattas call 

 it Peesoreh. So far as has hitherto been observed, it 

 is the only one that occurs on the continent of Asia, 

 and it is not found far to the north. The others have 

 been met with chiefly in Java, but they in all proba- 

 bility inhabit the adjacent islands. 



The Napu ( T. napu) is the largest of the Javanese 

 species. It is about twenty inches long and rather 

 more than a foot in height, standing higher at the rump 

 than the shoulder. The upper part is mottled red 

 colour ; the sides grey, marked with white, and the 

 under part and insides of the legs altogether white ; 

 the tail is about two inches and a half, white on the 

 under side and at the end, which is furnished with a 

 small tuft of produced hairs ; it is also variously 

 striped with white and grey ; the legs are very slen- 

 der, and the body rather heavy, which gives the 

 whole an air of feebleness and incapacity for violent 

 exertion. It inhabits lower down than the memina, 

 being met with in the low thickets, and not in the 

 elevated woods. 



The Kanchil (T. Javanicus] has some general re- 

 semblance to the Napu in the form of its body, but it 

 is more lightly and handsomely made, much smaller in 

 size, and very different in colour. It is only from 

 fourteen to fifteen inches in length, and about nine in 

 the average height. On the middle of the back it is 

 very dark brown, approaching to black, but this 

 passes gradually into bright bay on the sides, while 

 the belly and insides of the legs are white. Like the 

 Napu, this species is marked with white streaks on 

 the breast, but they are differently disposed. The 

 variations of colour and size are constant, and more- 

 over the habits and manners of the two animals do 

 not agree. These, together with the different 

 names given to them by the natives, are sufficient 

 grounds for regarding them as distinct species. The 

 Kanchil is an inhabitant of the dense forests, and 

 much more mild in its disposition than the Napu. If 

 taken young, the Napu can be tamed without much 

 difficulty ; but the Kanchil, though not a vicious 

 animal, cannot be tamed, and escapes to the forest 

 whenever it can find an opportunity. Living in the 

 forests, which are infested with powerful carnivorous 

 animals, this active little creature has occasion for no 

 slight degree of cunning and resource in order that it 

 may preserve itself from them. Nor is this animal 

 found without sufficient means of self-protection in 

 proportion to the danger in which it is placed. It is 

 very quick, and equally cunning. If it is free, so 

 that it can avail itself of its active powers of escaping, 

 and is hard pressed in the chase, it is said to make a 

 vigorous bound upward, catch a branch with its strong 

 and hooked canines, hang suspended there while the 

 enemy passes underneath, and, as soon as the ground 

 is clear, jerk itself down, and make off in the opposite 

 direction. If it has no active means of escape, its 

 passive cunning is equally great. It is well known 

 that many animals attempt to follow the pattern of 

 the " passive stout," mentioned by Butler, and 

 " Run away from death by dying." 



Foxes have been known to do this when surprised in 

 a poultry-house from which they could not make 

 their escape ; and the dead fox, after being taken by 

 the hind legs and tossed out as lumber, until there 



should be time for making him pay the forfeit of his 

 skin, has been known to start instantly, and bear his 

 brush triumphantly to his cover. The Kanchil is said 

 to practise a similar ruse when caught in nooses. It 

 lies stretched, and looking as if strangled ; but if the 

 hunter undoes the noose, the Kanchil vanishes in an 

 instant. 



The Pelandok ( T. pelandok) is described as being 

 lower on the legs and heavier in the body than the 

 Kanchil, and, though resembling the Napu, a more 

 sluggish animal in appearance than even that. Its 

 colour on the upper part is light rusty grey ; the 

 canines were very small in the specimens seen, which 

 renders it probable that they were immature animals, 

 in all probability, of the Napu, or, at all events, 

 closely allied to it. The habits are said to be exactly 

 the same as that animal, brushwood, in the neighbour- 

 hood of houses where predatory animals are compa- 

 ratively few, being preferred to the wild woods, in 

 which the lighter but more energetic and spirited 

 Kanchil invariably takes up its residence. Infor- 

 mation is, however, still wanted respecting these 

 animals. 



MUSQUITO. The name of one of the most 

 tormenting of our insect enemies, which, from the 

 attacks of its countless multitudes upon sleeping per- 

 sons, is the subject of more consternation and alarm 

 than can well be imagined by persons who have never 

 encountered them. In our country the bite of the 

 gnat is regarded as an evil, but in the sultry climates 

 of Brazil, India, &c., where, from the exhaustion 

 attendant upon the daily heat, the body has need of 

 sound nightly rest, the attacks of the musquito become 

 a real plague, and one of the greatest luxuries that 

 can be imagined is a musquito-proof curtained bed. 

 Like the gnat, the musquito announces its approach 

 by a buzzing hum ; and it is one of the most particular 

 duties of the attendants of the inhabitants of these 

 countries to whisk away the musquitoes which, during 

 the day, have taken shelter within the bed-curtains, 

 by means of a flapper, and then suddenly to let fall 

 the curtains, which are provided with weights at. the 

 edges ; and the ceremony of lifting up the curtains 

 and jumping into bed must be performed as quickly 

 and as carefully as possible, to prevent the ingress of 

 the fearful plague. The gnats and musquitoes belong 

 to the same natural group, Culicidce, and as they breed 

 in stagnant water and damp situations, it does not 

 seem improbable that the last-named insects were 

 the species of flies which were employed as one of 

 the ten plagues of Egypt to punish the rebellious 

 Egyptians. In the article BAT there is the following 

 passage, which especially bears upon the subject : 

 " The banks of the Nile, in Egypt, where they (the 

 bats) dwell in the palaces and sepulchres of forgotten 

 kings, and the temples of forgotten gods, are particu- 

 larly replenished with them, because the sivell'mg and 

 subsiding of the Nile cause a vast production of insect 

 life." Mr. Kirby, indeed, adopts another opinion, 

 suggested to him by an eminent and learned prelate, 

 that the Egyptian plague of flies, which is usually 

 supposed to have been either a mixture of different 

 species, or a fly then called the dog-fly (KWO^VM), but 

 which is not now known, was a cock-roach, the He- 

 brew name of the latter, which is the same by which 

 the raven is also distinguished, furnishing no slight 

 argument in favour of it, the same word also signifying- 

 the evening, Hence, as the cock-roach of Egypt is 

 black, and appears only in the evening, Mr. Kirby 



