394 Life of Sir Stamford Raffles. 



In the same year, 1806, Dr. Horsfield obtained his first specimen 

 of that beautiful species Falco ccerulescens, the smallest of its /race, 

 previously made known by Kdwards, but with which Dr. Ilorsfield's 

 researches have first rendered naturalists familiar; and which, 

 uniting the characters of the Hawks and the Falcons, has been 

 erected into the genus ilierax^ by Mr. Vigors, as a distinct type of 

 form. At the same period he discovered the genus Eurylaimus^ 

 forming the immediate connexion, as Mr, Vigors has pointed out, 



in a paper afterwards publislied in the Transactions of tlie Linnean Society, 

 under the name of Viverra? Linsang ; though it would appear, from the 

 mark of interrofjation, that he was doubtful of its really belonging to that 

 genus. But when Dr. Horsfield re-examined this animal, preparatory to 

 describing it in his " Zoological Researches," the preponderance of what 

 appeared to be its natural character, determined him to associate it with the 

 genus Fdis, under the specific appellation of gracilis, derived from its slender 

 make. At the same time its peculiarities rendered it necessary for him to 

 construct and define for its reception a distinct section of Felis, for which he 

 proposed the denomination of Prionodonlidas, from the distinguishing dental 

 characters of the animal. 



Shortly after this determination, however, the attention of Zoologists in 

 general became directed to Mr. MacLeay's profound views of natural arrange- 

 ment, and Dr. Horsfield, when subsequently induced rigorously to re-consider 

 the Felis gracilis, whilst examining a Javan species of 3Iangusta, (one of the 

 modern divisions of the genus Viverra,) guided by the laws Mr. MacLeay had 

 developed, arrived at the following conclusions : that the feline animals consti- 

 tuted one series and the viverrine another series in the animal kingdom; that the 

 resemblance of the F. gracilis to the Mangusta Javanica and other Viverree was 

 founded only on relations oi analogy, whilst by its relations of affinity it was 

 associated with the Feles; and finally that this animal must be regarded as 

 the type of a distinct genus in thp/«w% comprising the species of the Linnsean 

 Felis, to which he gave the name of Prionodon ; the ditficulties which had 

 occurred in the classification of the animal being thus entirely removed. See 

 Zool. Res. art. Mangusta Javanica. 



Such then has* been the progress and result of the inquiry respecting the 

 station in nature of the Prionodon gracilis i but whilst this animal, it may be 

 remarked, thuf ev idently belongs to the family oiFelidtn, it as evidently apper- 

 tains to a grou|5 in that family approximating to the Viverra. And as the cha- 

 racters of the Felis jubata, Schreb., or Hunting Leopard, exhibit a deviation 

 from the type of the genus towards the Dogs, (see Zool. Journ. vol. ii. p. 528 ;) 

 combining these facts, we appear to have an indicationof part of the succession 

 ofalHnities among the Carnivora, in the situation of Felis, Linn., between 

 Viverra, CJmel., and some of the modern licctions of Canis, Linn. 



