1S60.] Proceedings of tlie Asiatic Society of Bengal. 93 



Cebttjlus Eeetesii, (Ogilby). The small Chinese Muntjac. A 

 skull with horns. 



Masts pestadacttla, L. Skull and flat skin. This particular 

 species of Pangolin has long been identified as an inhabitant of China, 

 and was obtained by Dr. Cantor in Chusan.* 



while in his care, and its skin was so worthless that I did not keep it. The doe 

 is still alive and in good health, and from her personal appearance I observe that 

 your surmise as to the summer duration of the white spots is quite correct. 

 She has already nearly lost all the white marks. I hear that there are several 

 more of the same species, in the possession of a Mandarin here, and I intend 

 shortly visiting him to inspect them. As far as I have yet ascertained, the species 

 is purely Formosan. A larger Stag replacing it in Shantung and North China 

 with large branching horns, and having a redder coat [i. e. summer vesture]. 

 This other species I am assured is also found in Formosa, but this requires con- 

 firmation. The small Muntjac (Ceetuiits .Reevesii), ' kina' of this dialect, is 

 abundant in Formosa, having myself met with it there and seen skins. The 

 other Deer-skins shewn me on my tour round Formosa were all of the spotted 

 species. You say that no Elapliine Deer are found [in India] south of the 

 Himalayas. Let me remark that this Deer is from Formosa, where I have seen 

 mountains covered tcith snoto in summer; and it is most probable that these 

 animals are sold by the savages to the Chinese settlers, as in our inland tour over 

 the hills for some 40 miles we met none, and the Chinese spoke of them as com- 

 ing from the mountains, and of their skins as forming articles of barter. 



" We have a Japanese Deer at Amoy witli horns short and somewhat like 

 those of the Formosan. It is not so elegant as mine, shorter in the legs, about 

 the same height, and of a far more Stag aspect. This I doubt not is the C. sika 

 of Schlegel, but what our large northern Stag can be I have not had the opportu- 

 nity to ascertain. There are a few of the horns of the Formosan species to 

 be got, which I will try to procure for you." 



* The Chinese, like the natives of India, class the Pangolin as a fish, and it is 

 curious that both people approximate it to certain Carps. Thus in India this 

 animal is known as the JungU-match (Jungle-fish), or Ban Rohi (Jungle Rohi), 

 in reference to the Rohita vulgaris, or Cyprinus rohita of B. Hamilton. In 

 some amusing notices of Chinese Natural History, published in the ' Chinese 

 Repository' for 1838, we find the Pangolin thus described (p. 48). " The 

 ling-le, or ' Hill Carp,' is so called, says the Pun Tsaou, because its shape and 

 appearance resembles that of the le or Carp ; and since it resides on land, in caves 

 and hills, it is called Ling, a character compounded of yu fish, joined to the right 

 half of ling, a high rocky place. It has by some been termed the Lung-le, or 

 ' Dragon-carp,' because it has the scales of the Dragon ; and by others Chaen 

 shan teas, or ' boring hill-scales,' because it is the scaly animal that burrows in the 

 hills : the last name is the one by which the creature is best known among the 

 people of Canton. An ancient name is Shih ling yu or ' stony hill-fish,' given to 

 it because the scales on its tail have three corners like the ling tea, or 'water 

 calthrops,' and are very hard. Tins animal, for which the Chinese have as many 

 synonyms as some anomalous Perch or Hedysarum, is the Manis, Pangolin, or 

 Scaly Ant-eater, and is often seen in the hands of the people of Canton, by whom 

 it is regarded as a very curious ' muster.' They consider it as ' a fish out of water,' 

 an anomaly irreconcilable with any classification ; and in the standard treatises on 

 Natural History, it is placed among the Crocodiles and fishes." Further details 

 are given ; but I pass to an amusing description of this animal by the old Dutch 

 traveller Linschoten, translated into quaint old English. He, too, describes it as 

 " a strange Indian fish," caught in the river of Goa, — " the picture whereof, 

 by commandment of the Archbishop of that city was painted, and for a wonder 

 sent to the king of Spaine." He says : — " It was in bignesse as great as a middle- 



