26 ZOOLOGY OF INDIA. 



African individuals of the species. The Asiatic variety in- 

 habits high banks on the borders of the Ganges and the 

 Jumna, from which it rarely issues by day. At night it 

 prowls around the Mohammedan habitations, and will some- 

 times even scratch up recently interred human bodies, un- 

 less the graves are protected by a covering of thorny 

 shrubs. So rapid are its subterranean exertions, that it 

 will work its way beneath the surface in the course of ten 

 minutes. Their favourite food consists of birds and small 

 quadrupeds. The specimen in the Zoological Gardens is 

 remarkable for its playfulness and good-humour. It solicits 

 attention by a variety of absurd postures, and tumbles head 

 over heels with the greatest delight as soon as it has suc- 

 ceeded in attracting the notice of visiters.* 



The rivers of India are so well stored with fish that we 

 naturally expect, on inquiring into the history of the Digiti- 

 grada, which form the second tribe of carnivorous animals, 

 or such as walk upon their toes, to tind the insidious otter 

 lurking along their shores. We must not, however, con- 

 found the Pondicherry otter {Lutra nair, F. Cuvier) with 

 the corresponding, though not identical, species of Europe 

 or America. Its hair is of a deep chestnut colour above, 

 paler on the sides, and of a reddish-white on ihe under parts 

 of the body. The end of the muzzle is reddish, and there 

 are two spots of a similar colour one above and the other 

 beneath each eye. It measures about two feet and a half 

 exclusive of the tail, which is a foot and a half in length. 

 This species was sent from Pondicherry, .where it is named 

 ISir-nayk by M. Leschenhault ; and other Asiatic otters 

 have been described by Sir Stamford Raffles {Unn. Trans., 

 vol. xiii.), by Dr. Horsfield, and by M. Diard. 



We come next to the history of the canine tribes, one or 

 more of which are distributed over the East, as they are 

 over almost all the other known countries of the earth. The 

 real origin of our domestic breed of dogs, whether from a 

 single o'r complex source, may be said to be entirely un- 

 known as a subject either of history or tradition. It is lost 

 in the usual obscurity of a remote ancestry, and can now 



* Gardens and Menagerie, &c., vol. i. p. 20. 



A 



