1886.] THE HUME COLLECTION. 55 
I. Tue SamBuar CoLLecrion. 
The collection from Sambhar, Rajpootana, was formed in the 
winter of 1877-78 by Mr. R. M. Adam, to whom ornithologists are 
indebted for the “Notes on the Birds of the Sambhar Lake,” 
published in 1873. 
The interest possessed by such a series as the present consists in the 
aid it gives in fixing the north-westerly distribution of the commoner 
Indian mammals, a point on which we are as yet exceedingly 
ignorant, and for which authentic lists of the mammals of different 
localities are much needed. For this purpose Sambhar is an 
especially useful locality, as it is in this region that the fauna begins 
to lose its ordinary Indian character and to show signs of the desert 
influences so marked further west in Sind and the Punjaub. 
The collection consists of 42 skins referable to 19 species. The 
skulls have all been cleaned and sent separately, and too much 
credit cannot be given to Mr. Adam for the care and trouble he has 
taken in preparing this valuable part of his mammal collection. 
1. Fexis cnavus, Gild. 
a. 3. Sambhar, 2/2/78. 6. 3. Kishungurh, 26/12/77. 
2. Fexis rorquata, F. Cuv. 
a. 2. Sambhar, 17/12/77. 
3. FELIS ORNATA, Gr. m . 
a-e, 4 ¢ and 1 9.Sambhar, 12/77 and 1/78. f. 2. Kishun- 
gurh, 28/12/77. 
Mr. Adam obtained no less than six specimens of this rare and 
beautiful species, which has been hitherto represented in the national 
collection by only a single half-grown individual collected by Capt. 
Boys, and by askull from the Salt Range, obtained by Mr. Theobald. 
Mr. Adam/’s series is particularly valuable, as it proves incontestably 
the validity of the species, which has been confounded by Blyth, 
Jerdon, and others with F. torquata. 
4. VIvVERRICULA MALACCENSIS, F, Cuy. 
a. 3. Sambhar, 17/12/77. 
This seems tobe the most westerly Indian locality from which the 
Lesser Civet has been recorded, but the species turns up again on 
the other side of the Indian Ocean in Socotra, the Comoro Islands, 
and Madagascar, to all ef which it has probably been introduced by 
natives. 
5. PARADOXURUs NIGER, Desm. 
a-c. Sambhar, 8 and 9/77. 
' Stray Feathers, i. p. 361, 1873, 
