1870.} PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON 4ZLURUS FULGENS. 753 
about six years *, when the name by which the author had charac- 
terized the animal was withdrawn in favour of Arrurust, bestowed 
upon it by Fr. Cuvier, who in the meantime had received a specimen 
from M. Duvaucel, and given a coloured figure of the entire animal, 
and a full description of its external characters, in the fiftieth number 
of the ‘Histoire Naturelle des Mammiféres’ (vol. iii.), June 1825. 
M. Cuvier uses the word “ Panda” as the trivial name, and proposes 
the generic term dilurus ‘A cause de sa ressemblance extérieure avec 
le Chat.” This was not a very happy choice, as in all structural cha- 
racters indicative of true affinity it is almost as widely removed from 
the true Cats as any member of the group of terrestrial Carnivora. 
With the skin sent to the Paris Museum by M. Duvaucel were the 
jaw-bones and teeth, wanting the posterior molars, and also the bones 
of the feet. These are the only fragments of the osteology of lurus 
figured or described in De Blainville’s ‘ Ostéographie.’ 
For further information upon the habits and structure of the 
“ Panda,” or “ Wah,” as it was now called, we are indebted to a paper 
by Mr. Bryan H. Hodgson in ‘ Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal,’ vol. xvi. 
p- 1113 (1847). Unfortunately, at the time of writing this notice, 
Mr. Hodgson’s original manuscript, containing, as he says, “a full 
and careful description of the habits aud of the hard and soft ana- 
tomy of Ailurus,”’ had been lost, and consequently the anatomical 
description, as published, is exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory. 
It constitutes, however, the whole of the information possessed at 
at present upon the subject. The paper is illustrated by slight 
sketches of the external appearance of the animal in several attitudes, 
and of the base of the skull and the mandible, with much-worn teeth. 
Woodcuts of the side view of the skull and palate are given in 
Dr. Gray’s “ Revision of the Urside” (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 708). 
Although of no use for details of structure, they serve to show the 
general outline of the cranium and the peculiar form of the mandible. 
On the 22nd of May 1869, a living specimen of Mlurus (the first 
which had reached Europe) arrived at the Society’s Gardens, having 
been presented by Dr. H. Simpson. It was captured in the neigh- 
bourhood of Darjeeling. Notices relating to this specimen will be 
found in P. Z. S. 1869, p. 278, ibid. p- 408, with a woodcut-illus- 
tration from life, ibid. p. 507. Pl. xur. of the same volume 
contains a coloured lithograph of the animal drawn from life t. 
* Trans, Linn. Soc. vol. xv. 1827. Tab. ii. contains figures of the feet and teeth. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark that the truncation of the cusps of the molar 
teeth, attributed by Hardwicke to original structure, and as such carefully de- 
scribed among the generic characters, is certainly due to attrition from use. In 
the present example, as well as in that figured by De Blainville, the apices of 
these cusps are perfect. 
+ Modified by Van der Hoeven (Handbuch der Zoologie) into Hlurus. 
{ Mr. Hodgson remarks that he never observed the specimens of Aluri kept 
alive by him “ employ the hands, as the Raccoons and Coatis and Bears do, to 
facilitate the process of eating.” Bearing this remark in mind, it may be 
noticed with surprise that, in the figure alluded to above, the animal is repre- 
sented as holding a bunch of fruit in its fore paw; but this was a circumstance 
so constantly noted during its residence in the Zoological Gardens, that it was 
thought worth while to commemorate the habit in the portrait. (See Mr. Bart- 
lett’s “ Remarks on the Habits of the Panda in Captivity,” P. Z. S. 1870, p. 769.) 
