1885.] GENUS PARADOXURUS. 783 



are said to have been whitish, which prechules the idea of the 

 specimen having belonged to the common P. niger ; and altliougli it 

 was probably a Faradoxurus that was described, this is far from 

 certain, the presence of a groove beneath the penis being the only- 

 indication of generic affinities. Nothing is said of a naked area 

 around the genitals nor of the characters of tlie feet. It is true that 

 it is difficult to tell what other animal from Ceylon could have been 

 described by Palla?, but a hundred years ago lociilities were liy no 

 means trustworthy, as is shown in the case of V. hermaphrodita. 



The Musk or Musky Weasel of Pennant's 'History of Quadrupeds ' 

 (3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 72, pubHshed in 1793) has been referred to 

 a species of Paradoxurus by Gray \ and probal)ly with justice. 

 The description was taken from the drawing of a Bengal animal in 

 the possession of Sir Elijah Impey. 



Beyond copies and translations of Pallas's descriptions in the 

 compilations of Zimmermann, Gmelin, Boddaert, and Shaw, I can find 

 nothing further published on the subject until 1820". In that year 

 Desmarest's ' Mammalogie' appeared, with descriptions of Viverra 

 prehensilis, p. 208, and V. bondar, p. 210, founded by De Blainville 

 on figures in the library of the East-India Company, London. The 

 drawings are fortunately still in existence and are easily recognized ; 

 they are amongst a series made for Dr. Buchanan Hamilton by 

 native artists, and have written on them the names Ichneumon 

 prehensilis and Ichneumon bondar, which were apparently given by 

 Buchanan Hamilton himself. Moreover the Bengali names are 

 written on each drawing in the ordinary cursive Bengali character ; 

 and as this character is peculiar to Bengal, it serves to show where 

 the drawings were made, and probably that the animals represented 

 were well known in the country, though but little value can be 

 attached to this evidence. I am indebted to Mr. Long for decipher- 

 ing the names. The drawing of Ichneumon bondar, the Bengali 

 names assigned to which are bhdni and bhondar, represents the 

 common Indian Paradoxurus unmistalvably. This is imjiortant, as 

 will be seen presently, because Jerdon has classed P. bondar as 

 distinct. The figure of Ichneumon prehensilis, of which the 

 Bengali name is given as Bdghddnkh, represents, I believe, the 

 striped race or species, which I refer to P. hermuphroditus, common 

 in Lower Bengal and at the foot of the Himalayas. The Para- 

 doxurus prehensilis, figured in the Society's ' Proceedings' for 1877, 

 pi. Ixxi., is, however, I think, a different form, Arctogale leucotis. 



1 P. Z. S. 1832, p. Go. 



^ Dr. Gray, in liis 'Catalogue of the Carnivorous, Pachydermatous, and 

 Edentate Maininalia in the British Museum,' p. 77, footnote, states that M. de 

 Blainville saw the drawings collected by Buchanan Hamilton, at the India 

 House, in 1816, and published a paper in the Bull. Soc. Philoni. for that year, 

 with descriptions of Viverra prehensilis and other species. There is no such 

 paper by De Blainville in the ' Bulletin de la Socitte Philoniathique ' for 

 l81(i, r.or can I find any reference to any such paper amongst the Royal 

 Society's list of EeBlain\ilIfc's contributions to the periodical named and toother 

 journals, whilst Desmarest makes no reference to a previous publication of the 

 name. 



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