o 



1SH7.] NOMENCLATURE OF INDIAN MAMMALS. 633 



d'ou Buffon a derive celui tie mangouste, que nous conservons 

 coninie nom generique." This is said, moreover, to be the animal 

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

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

 Ichneumon mungo. I believe that Geoff«'oy understood by this 

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

 sliall show that this was the view of Frederic Cuvier, Geolfroy's 

 collaborator in the ' Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes.' The 

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

 bandes " is due to Buffon and Schreber. 



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

 the Common Indian Mungoose was Viverra mungo of Gmelin. This 

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

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

 an African species, Crossai-chus 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 these 

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

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

 ichneumon /3 of Linnaeus and Schreber. Now the V. ichneumon j3 

 of LiniiEeus's twelfth edition, the Mustela glauca of the fifth, and 

 the Mungos of his ' Amoenitates Academicse,' are ail founded on 

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

 the Indians and Mungo by tlie Portuguese, Kaempfer visited India 

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

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

 also to H. javanicus. 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 Mungos is a 

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

 of Kaempfer, Linnaeus, 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 

 Mungoose is traced to a Telugu word mangisu. 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 Nyul, but I know that mangiis 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 hs Cauarese ; and Kelaart^ il/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 



' Eastern Persia, li. p. 42. ^ Amoen. Exot. p. 574. 



3 P. Z. S. 1831, p. 102. " Madr. Journ. Lit. Sci. x. p. 102, 



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



' Prodromiis Faun. Zeyl. p. 41, 



