205 



European Notices of Indian Canines, with further illustra- 

 tions of the new genus " Cuon vel Chrysceus." By B. H. 

 Hodgson, Esq. 



Hamilton Smith has lately (1839-40) produced, in the Na- 

 turalist's Library, two volumes upon the Canidae, which, 

 like all his prior works, are distinguished by bold and skil- 

 ful efforts to reduce the crude insufficient materials at his 

 disposal into system, and by the graceful illustrations of 

 classical and general scholarship. 



It must be confessed, however, that these volumes are 

 upon the whole a failure, signally demonstrative of the im- 

 possibility of making a safe and effective use of those des- 

 criptions of animals which constituted the Natural History 

 of the last age. I purpose on the present occasion to 

 notice a few palpable errors of fact in this work, and to 

 vindicate my own claim to an earlier and juster definition of 

 the Chryssean group, than that of our author. 



Colonel Smith, then, affirms that the hyaena is found ordi- 

 narily in the mountains beyond the Ganges ; that wolves, 

 (the race,) are essentially tenants of woody, mountainous 

 regions ; that a perfectly wild race of pariar dogs exists in 

 the Sub-Himalayan forests; that jackalls have only six teats; 

 and lastly, (for I will go no further at present,) that the true 

 wild dogs, of which my Canis primavus is the type, have not 

 the vulpine odour, or at least, that no author has noticed its 

 presence, and that their mammas are only eight. 



Now the truth upon these several points appears to be, 

 that there are no wild pariars whatever in the Himalayas, 

 Sub-Himalayas, or Saul forests ; nor, I believe, in any other 

 part of India : that the regions first and specially parti- 

 cularised, are entirely devoid of the hyaena and of the 

 wolf, which animals, so far from being essentially mon- 

 ticolous foresters, abound chiefly, and almost exclusively, 

 in the barest parts of the plains of India, such as the whole 



