798 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [Nov. 3, 



other, and have in common the characters above noted as charac- 

 teristic of P. niger ; and whilst Burmese, Siamese, and Malay indi- 

 viduals have, with few exceptions, the coloration and dentition of 

 P. hermaphroditits {P. tnusanga), intermediate varieties are found iu 

 Bengal and the countries about the head of the Bay of Bengal. 

 Similarly the variety found in Borneo, and which is represented by 

 several skins in the British Museum, may very possibly be a hybrid 

 or an intermediate form between P. hermopliroditus and P. philip- 

 pensis. Under these circumstances it is, I think, a mere matter of 

 convenience whether the tvFO forms are to be distinguished, as I have 

 done, as P. niger and P. hermaphroditus, whether they are to be 

 called two geographical races or subspecies, or whether, according to 

 the system now in favour with some naturalists, they are to receive 

 trinomial designations, e. g. P. hermaphroditus niger and P. herma- 

 phroditus musanga^. 



Synonymy. The first question here is the propriety of giving to 

 this species or race the name hermaphroditus rather than to the 

 Indian form, to which the name has been assigned by Gray and 

 others. 



The reasons for using the name hermaphroditus for the present 

 species are two in number. (1) Viverra hermaphrodita was de- 

 scribed as having three black stripes on the back. The presence of 

 distinct longitudinal bands is the rule in the Malay form, whilst it 

 is exceptional in the Indian. The light grey margin in front of the 

 ears, too, noticed in Pallas's description, agrees better with the grey 

 frontal band of the Eastern type. (2) We may regard hermapluo- 

 ditus as a name applicable to either form, and therefore as including 

 both. In this case, by the Linnsean rule for genera, the name is 

 retained for that portion of the original species which remains after 

 a defined section has been sejiarated. The first section thus separated 

 from P. hermaphroditus received the specific name of niger, and 

 consisted of the Indian form, so hermaphroditus should be confined 

 to the Malayan type. Another circumstance in favour of applying 

 Pallas's name to the latter is the greater probability of a specimen 

 in a German collection of the last century having been derived from 

 Java or one of the Malay islands. 



Several of the synonyms given above may possibly belong to 

 P. niger, or to some of the intermediate varieties. The rule adopted 

 has been to class all distinctly striped forms and all with a well- 

 marked frontal band under P. hermaphroditus. 



The figure representing the type of Viverra prehensilis is di- 

 stinctly striped, and is therefore referred here. Tiie tail-tip is white. 

 About V. tnusanga, the Sumatran form described by Raffles, there 

 can be no question. P. dubius was founded on the skin of a Javanese 

 animal, not half grown, because it did not agree with the young of 

 P. musanga. Both, however, were described (Gray, P. Z. S. 1832, 



' Personally I think this plan has but little to recommend it, and tliat it 

 must lead to confusion, because it makes no distinction between geographical 

 races and ordinary varieties, to say nothing of mutations or what may be termed 

 geological varieties, although all these forms of variation are perfectly distinct 



