QUADRUPEDS. 10 



CHAPTER II. 



The Quadrupeds of India, 



The Gibbon — Entellus Monkey — Wanderoo — Bats — Bears- — Jackal — 

 Thibet Dog — Ichneumon — Lion— Tiger — Hunting-tiger— Squirrel- 

 Gigantic Rat — Pangolin— Elephant — Rhinoceros — Camel — Musk-deer 

 — Nepanl Stag — Rusa Deer — Spotted Axis — -Hog-deer — Roebuck — 

 White Oryx— Chiru— Four-horned Antelope— Nyl-ghau— Cashmere 

 Goat — Jemlah Goat — Wild-sheep — Buffalo — Arnee — Grunting-ox — 

 Gayall — Cetaceous Animals — Dugong — Gangetic Dolphin. 



In our zoological sketches we must of course confine 

 ourselves to the history and attributes of but a small por- 

 tioit of the animal kingdom compared with the total species ; 

 but we shall at the same time endeavour to make such a 

 selection as may illustrate most of the peculiar and more 

 remarkable features of Indian zoology. We shall there- 

 fore proceed, conformably with the systematic arrangements 

 of naturalists, to the quadrumanous order of the class 

 Mammalia, which, containing the monkeys and other spe- 

 cies, one of which even Linnaeus regarded (under the name 

 of Homo nocturnus) as nearly allied to the human race, 

 may be considered as entitled to our earliest consideration. 



Of the orang-outang, the most remarkable of the order, 

 ■we cannot here speak, as it occurs only in Borneo and cer- 

 tain other districts which lie beyond the bounds of our pres- 

 ent jurisdiction ; but many of the smaller species are na- 

 tive to the Indian forests. Indeed nowhere in the known 

 world are monkeys better provided for than in India, where 

 in some districts the weak and idolatrous superstition of 

 the natives has raised them even to the rank of gods. 

 Temples of the most magnificent structure were erected in 

 their honour ; and when one of these was plundered by 

 the Portuguese in Ceylon, they found in it the tooth of an 

 ape enclosed in a casket of pure gold. In such veneration 

 was this relic held by the natives, that they offered seven 



