37^ ON THE PANGOLIN, &C. 



XX. 



On the PANGOLIN of BAHAR, 



BY 



MATTHEW LESLIE, Esq. 



•*" I "HE fingular animal which M. Buff on defcribes by 

 -*- the name of Pangolin, is well known in Europe 

 fince the publication of his Natural Hittory, and Gold- 

 smith's elegant Abridgment of it; but, if the figure 

 exhibited by Buffon was accurately delineated from the 

 three animals, the fpoils of which he had examined, 

 we mud confider that which has been lately brought 

 from Caracdiah to Chitra, and fent thence to the Pre- 

 iidency, as a remarkable variety, if not a different 

 fpecics, of the Pangolin. Ours has hardly any neck ; 

 and, though fome filaments are difcernible between the 

 fcales, they can fcarce be called briftles. But the 

 principal difference is in the tail ; that of Buffon's ani- 

 mal being long, and tapering almoft to a point; while 

 that of ours is much fhorter, ends obtufely, and re- 

 fembles, in form and flexibility, the tail of a lobfter. In 

 other refpecfs, as far as we can judge from the dead 

 fubject, it has all the characters of Buffon's Pangolin ; 

 a name derived from that by which the animal is diftin- 

 guifhed in Java, and confequently preferable to Manis, 

 or Pholiddtus, or any other appellation deduced from an 

 European language. As to thefcaly lizard, the fcaled 

 armadillo, and the five-nailed ant-eater, they are mani- 

 fcltly improper defignations of this animal ; which is 

 neither a lizard, nor an armadillo, in the common ac- 

 ceptation ; and, though it be an ant-eater, yet it effen- 

 tially differs from the hairy quadruped ufually known by 

 that general clcfcription. We are told that the Malabar 

 name of this animal is Akingu. The natives of Bahar 

 call it Bajar-at 3 or, as they explain the word, Jlone- 



vermine ; 



