338 On the Mammalia of Nepal. [Aug. 



ture) neither the small nor large horned cattle flourish in it, in the 

 domestic state : and the paucity of its wild mammalia would seem 

 to indicate that animals of this class find its climate inimical to them 

 even in the state of nature. 



The third region of Nepal is the juxta- Himalayan, called hy 

 Buchanan the Alpine, and by the natives denominated the K a char. 

 From the crest or spine of the Hemachal it extends, in breadth, about 

 10 horizontal miles. The mountains are of a like structure, and as 

 splendidly wooded almost as those of the central region, but much 

 higher, being, I should suppose, generally from 10 to 16,000 feet above 

 the sea, up to the limit of habitability ; where, of course, I stop. For 

 half the year the summits of these mountains are buried under snow ; 

 and, near to the iEmadus, their sides and basal intervals also. The 

 suite of the seasons is tropical, as before ; and, occasionally, the heat 

 is extreme. But the season of heat is short ; and, upon the whole, 

 the climate of this region more nearly resembles that of high than 

 that of low latitudes. It has nothing tropical about it but the course 

 of the seasons. Its grasses are short and wholesome : its underwood 

 free from rankness; and hence probably its cows, sheep, and goats, 

 are numerous, large, and fine ; whereas, as already observed, they are 

 few and poor in the proximate region, the succulent vegetation of which 

 retains much of the tropical extravagance of growth. When the 

 heats set in, in the central region, all the woollen-wearing inhabitants 

 of the Kachar hie away to their own province ; nor ever return till 

 the approach of the cold weather. Ex uno disce omnes. It is the 

 same with the birds as with the mammalia. There are peculiar ones 

 to each of the three regions — a point which I insist on, because, those 

 very persons who are so careful in mentioning the habitat of animals 

 have described many procured from the kingdom of Nepal, without 

 advertence to the particular part of that kingdom whence they were 

 obtained. 



I now proceed to my enumeration of the mammalia of Nepal, 

 distinguishing such as belong to the leaser hills, forest, and Tarai, 

 such as are found in the central region, and such as are peculiar to 

 the Kachar. Let me begin by acknowledging that I am but an 

 amateur zoologist, and have but recently turned my attention to the 

 mammalia : but as I may be soon removed from Nepal, or may 

 have my attention drawn off from Natural History to graver labours, 

 I shall not let an idle conceit of accuracy prevent me from mentioning 

 what has fallen under my observation, so far. My personal know- 

 ledge of these hills is chiefly confined to the central and northern 



