1S87.] NOMENCLATURE OF INDIAN MAMMALS. 633 



d'oii Button a derive celui de niano;ouste, que nous conservons 

 comnie nom generique." Tliis is said, moreover, to be the animal 

 noticed by Kaempfer and others, and recorded by Linnaeus. In the 

 note on p. 139, wliere Latin names are given, this species is called 

 Ic/meumon murigo. I beheve that Geoff'>'oy understood by this 

 name, and not by /. griseus, the Common Indian Mnngoose; and I 

 shall show tliat this was the view of Frederic Cuvier, GeofFroy's 

 collaborator in the ' Histoire Naturelle des ^lammiferes.' The 

 mixing up of the " Mangouste de VInde " and the " Mangouste a 

 bandes " is due to Bufi^on and Schreber. 



Some years ago I expressed the opinion ^ that the oldest name for 

 the Common Indian Mungoose was Viverra munyo of Gmelin. This 

 name, which was evidently the origin of Geoffroy's Ichneumon 

 mungo, has been by reeent writers either ignored or applied to 

 an African species, Crossarchus fasciatus. That several species 

 were referred to in the descriptions quoted by Gmelin is unques- 

 tionable ; and there is good reason for believing that one of tiiese 

 was G. fasciatus; but I am inclined to look upon the name as really 

 given to the Indian JNIungoose, for it is applied to the Viverra 

 ichneumon j3 of Linnaeus and Schreber. Now the V. ichyieumon j3 

 of Linnaeus's twelfth edition, the MusteJa glauca of the fifth, and 

 the Mungos of his 'Amcenitates Academicae,' are all founded on 

 the Viverra mungo of Kaempfer, said to be called " Mungutia" by 

 the Indians and Mungo by tiie Portuguese. Kaempfer visited India 

 amongst other places, and gave in his work ' a general account of 

 the Indian jNIungoose. It is probable that his remarks refer partly 

 also to H. juvanicus. The question, however, is to determine which 

 is the species of Herpestes known in the country it inhabits by the 

 name Mungutia, or by some term of which Mungo or 3Iungos is a 

 corruption, for this must clearly be the species to which the names 

 of Kaempfer, Linnseus, and Gmelin were intended to apply. And 

 as the Anglo-Indian term Mungoose is evidently of similar origin, 

 its derivation if ascertained must elucidate the question. 



In Colonel Yule's recently published ' Hobson Jobson ' the term 

 jMuiigoose is traced to a Telugu word mangisv. Sykes\ Elliot^, 

 and Jerdon ° state that the word mangiis itself is Mahratti, and, 

 according to Jerdon, Hindi also in Southern India. I do not 

 attach much importance to this, as it is just possible the name may 

 not have existed originally in either language, being probably 

 Dravidian, whilst both languages are of Sanscrit derivation. The 

 Hindi name in Northern India in J^gul, but I know that mangus is 

 pretty generally understood by those natives who come much in 

 contact with Europeans. But to return to the dialects of Southern 

 India. Elliot" gives Mungli as Canarese ; and Kelaart" iT/oo^a^ea 

 as Cingalese. In all probability, as so frequently happens in Indian 

 languages, a nasal n before the g in Cingalese has escaped Kelaart's 



1 Eastern Persia, li. p. 42. * Amcen. Esot. p. 674. 



3 P. Z. S. 1831, p. 102. " Madr. Journ. Lit. Sei. s. p. 102. 



' Mammals of India, p. 132. " Loc. cit. 



~ Prodromus Faun. Zeyl. p. 41. 



