784 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [NoV. 3, 



It may be here remarked that De Blainville's name Viverra pre- 

 hensilis cannot be applied to any species of Paradoxurus, because 

 there is a much earlier use of the same term Viverra prehensilis by 

 Kerr in 1/92 (An. King. p. 169) for the Kinkajou {Cercoleptes 

 caudivolvulus). 



A third species in Desmarest's ' Mammalogie ' is Viverra nigra, 

 p. 208, founded upon skins sent by M. Leschenanlt de Latour 

 from Pondicherry under the French name of La Marte des palmiers 

 or palm-marten. Although the description was supposed by Otto 

 to be that of Arctictis hinturortg^ there can he, I think, no question 

 but that the skin described by Desmarest was that of the common 

 I ndian Paradoxurus. 



The generic name Paradoxurus was proposed in the succeeding 

 year, 1821, by F. Cuvier in the ' Histoire Naturelle des iMammiferes ' 

 for an animal living in the Menagerie at Paris, and sent by M. 

 Lechenault^ from Pondicherry as La Martre des palmiers, clearly 

 the same species as that, a skin of which in the previous year had 

 formed the type of Desmarest's Viverra nigra. Cuvier proposed a 

 new specific title, Paradoxurus typus, for his animal ; and as the name 

 was accompanied by a coloured figure, which, although far from a 

 good representation, is fairly recognizable, this name has been more 

 generally used than any of the. earlier specific titles. The generic name 

 was founded on the circumstance of the animal carrying its long tail 

 in a coil, a peculiarity that appears to be very common in caged 

 specimens belonging to this genus, but which has never, so far as I 

 can learn, been observed in the wild state. That the coiling is due 

 to a diseased condition is evident from the circumstance that many 

 animals thus affected are unable to uncoil their tails. 



In the ' Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,' vol. ix. 

 p. 41 (1822), F. Cuvier added two additional species, P. albifrons 

 and P. aureus. The former, from a drawing by Duvaucel of an 

 animal in the Menagerie at Barrackpoor Park, near Calcutta, was 

 not a Paradoxurus at all, but Arctictis binturong ; the latter was 

 taken from a young animal, preserved in spirit, of unknown origin. 

 As it was coloured of a golden tawny (fauve dore) throughout, the 

 only species to which it can be referred is the Ceylonese animal 

 subsequently called P. zeijlanicus by Gray. 



Long subsequently, in 1839, F. Cuvier, the younger, figured and 

 described in one of the numbers of the ' Histoire Naturelle des 

 Mammiferes ' a specimen said to have been brought from Nubia by a 

 Mr. Burton, under the name of Paradoxurus nubice. The figure 

 may have been taken from a typical variety of P. liermaphroditus. 



Viverra musanga was described by Raflfles in 1822, and subse- 

 quently referred to Paradoxurus in Horsfield's ' Zoological Researches 

 in Java.' Another species, P. leucopus, was added by Ogilby, in the 

 'Zoological Journal' of 1828, vol. iv. p. 304. Gulo larvatus, 

 described originally by Hamilton Smith, was made the type of a 

 new genus, Paguma, by Gray, in the Society's ' Proceedings,' Part 1 



^ Doubtless tlie same as is mentioned by Desmarest, though his name is 

 spelt with a slight difference 



