128 CATALOGUE. 



illustration of ignotum per ignotius, proceed to mark the differences 

 from the first-named animals, to wit, that the Badgers are sub-omni- 

 vorous diggers, dwelling in cavities of their own formation, whereas 

 the Wahs are vegetalivorous climbers, frequenting trees much, but 

 breeding and feeding chiefly on the ground, and having their retreat in 

 the natural resiliencies of rocks. They are monogamous, and live in 

 pairs or small families, consisting of the parents and offspring, who all 

 remain together till the next brood is about to appear, when the mother 

 drives the grown young off. How long the female gestates I cannot 

 learn, but she brings forth amid the recesses of the rocks in spring or 

 early summer, almost always two at a birth, one of which is frequently 

 much larger than the other, though the sexes at maturity hardly differ 

 in size and not at all in aspect, nor the young from the parents in the 

 latter respect. The Ailuri feed on fruits, tuberous roots, thick sprouts 

 such as those of the Chinese bamboo, acorns, beech mast, and eggs. 

 The last they are very fond of, and eating them is the nearest approach 

 they make to animal food, unless we must also add to the list of their eat- 

 ables the young of birds and of small mammals which I doubt, though 

 I am assured of the fact. In general, the Wahs eschew flesh, fish, insects, 

 reptiles, absolutely. But they love milk and ghee, and constantly make 

 their way furtively into remote dairies and cowherds' cottages to possess 

 themselves of those luxuries. Their ordinary feeding times are early 

 morn and eve. They sleep a deal in the day and dislike strong lights, 

 though not nocturnal in their habits of seeking food. Their manners 

 are staid and tranquil : their movements slow and deliberate : their 

 tempers placid and docile, so that they are easily tamed and may be 

 suffered to go abroad soon after they are taken, even though mature, 

 and still more if young. They are delicate animals, and cannot endure 

 heat at all, nor cold well, amply and entirely as they are clad in fur. 

 They are not pugnacious nor noisy, but remarkably the contrary of both. 

 As climbers, no quadrupeds can surpass, and very few equal them, but 

 on the ground they move awkwardly as well as slowly, yet without any 

 special embarrassment. The Wahs, as I have observed above, sleep 

 much by day, though not strictly noctivagrant, and they repose fre- 

 quently in an upright attitude, resting on the large broad palma and 

 planta with the head tucked between the fore legs and under the chest, 

 like Racoons and Lemurs, but more generally like dogs and cats, that 

 is, laid on the side and rolled into a ball, the head being concealed by 

 the bushy tail, which is carefully drawn round so as to cover the eyes 

 and exclude the light. The Wahs have little of that eminent develop- 

 ment of the senses which distinguishes most animals as opposed to 



