NYCTICEBrS. 



105 



same type as Andebert's specimen. Audebert appears to have been in doubt regarding 

 its natural habitat, because he says: " Celle (figure) que nous donnons, nous a ete 

 envoye du Bengale par M. Alfred Duyaucel sous le nom de Lori Toucan^ nom que 

 cet animal re9oit des Malais." The probability, therefore, is that this specimen was 

 of Malayan origin, and that M. Duvaucel had previously obtained it or had 

 purchased it when in Calcutta and there appended the Malayan name to it ; and, 

 moreover, as strengthening this supposition, is the circumstance that no Eastern 

 Bengal example of this animal is registered in the Catalogue of the Paris Museum 

 published in 1851. Both Audebert's and Cuvier's specimens belong to the type 

 without head-bands figured by Van der Hoeven,^ and which is in strong contrast with 

 the Assam form, although it has the same number of upper incisors. This is the 

 form to which Temminck^ also applied the term N. iardigradus^ Linn., and it is 

 likewise classed in the Paris Catalogue under iV. tardigradus^^ and is recorded from 

 Borneo. 



Geoffrey characterised N. bengalensis^ as having a large muzzle with four 

 upper incisors, and distinguished his N. javanicus, the Kuhong of Temminck, by 

 its short muzzle with two upper premaxillary teeth, but he makes no mention of the 

 four permanent brown bands on the front of the head, and which are so well shown 

 in the head figured by Van der Hoeven, which corresponds to the variety C of 

 Blyth. The muzzle of N. javanicus more resembles in breadth and shortness that 

 of N. cinereus than that of the Burmo-Malayan Nycticehus. 



Geoffrey's specimens were obtained in Java® by M. Leschenault. Guerin^ in his 

 " Iconographie" figures this form and its skull and incisor teeth as N. tardigradm. 



The chief characters by which these various NycticeU have been separated 

 from each other are the differences of coloration and the number of incisors in 

 the upper jaw, which may be either two or four, but this latter character is 

 the subject of variation as has been shown by A. M.-Edwards, who has met 

 with skulls of N. javanicus with only one upper incisor on one side of the jaw and 

 two on the opposite side. This being the case, he is inclined to regard N. javanicus 

 as only a synonym of N. tardigradus. However, the coloration of the former is 

 markedly distinct from that of the latter ; and the two upper incisors are rarely 

 supplemented by one, and I am not aware that an instance has been met with in 

 which four have been present. Van der Hoeven^ states that he has never observed 

 an example of N. tardigradus with only two incisors, but he agrees with 

 A. M.-Edwards that A^.y6)^?;am(?2^5 and iV. tardigradus do not materially differ in 

 their dentition. And an observation of Huxley's^ on the dentition of Nycticehus 

 javanicus verifies the more recent observations of these zoologists, and proves 

 satisfactorily that the teeth in that form are liable to considerable variation. 



1 Cat. Method, des Mamm. 1851, p. 78. 



2 Arch. Neeiiand, vol. iii. 1868, pi. vi. fig. 8. 



3 Les Possess. Neerland, 1. 1, p. 323, 1846. 



4 i.e. 



* Ann. Mus. 1812, pi. xix. p. 164. 



6 L.c. 



^ Iconographie Mamm. vol. i, pi. 6. 



8 L. c, p. 95. 



^ Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1864, p. 323. 







