8 Asiatic Society . [ No . 1 2 1 . 



seen in the Mulnad." Lieut. Tickell informs us that it " is found throughout the jungly 

 districts of Central India, but from its retired habits is not often seen. It never ven- 

 tures into the open country, where its want of speed would ensure its easy capture, but 

 keeps among rocks, in the crevices of which it passes the heat of the day, and into 

 which it retires on the approach of an enemy. In these the female brings forth her 

 young (generally two in number) at the close of the rains, or the commencement of 

 the cold season. The male keeps with the female during the rutting season, (about 

 June or July,) at other times they live solitary. An idea," continues this gentleman, 

 " prevails among the people in Singboom, not altogether void of probability, that at 

 the season of the fall of the leaf, the ' Yar' never ventures beyond a few yards from its 

 cave, as in walking along it sticks its sharp-pointed hoofs through the fallen foliage, 

 which accumulates in such bunches on its legs as to cripple its movements altogether, 

 should it prolong its rambles." (Calc. Jour. Nat. Hist. No. iii. 420.) How much 

 further to the northward it may range, I possess no data for determining ; but think it 

 not unlikely that it will prove to inhabit suitable localities at the foot of the Himalaya.* 

 A second specimen of this animal, very young, and but just dead, has been obligingly 

 presented to the Society by Mrs. Linstedt. f 



3rd. Dr. Wallich has favoured us with a fine specimen of a Jackal (Canis aureus), 

 of which common species the Museum did not previously contain an example; and 

 with a pair (male and female) of the Corsac, or small Indian Fox, (Vulpes Corsac,) 

 a species which before was represented only by a very shabby and mutilated stuffed 

 skin, though we possess a good skeleton of this pretty little animal. The male now 

 set up is a particularly fine and handsome one. 



4th. Dr. Pearson has presented the Society with two handsome skins, but un- 

 fortunately mutilated of the fore-paws, and inordinately stretched lengthwise, of a 

 species of Otter, which I will notice presently; and one of a Weasel, which I suspect 

 to be an undescribed species, allied to Mustela Sarmatica. Size of the Ermine, or 

 European Stoat, (M. Erminea,) and also nearly allied to that species, but rather 

 darker (I write from memory only of the Ermine) in its colouring, with the tail-tip 

 dusky reddish-brown, and less developed than the black tail-tip of M. Erminea; 

 middle of the face, from the upper lip to the occiput, passing between the ears, and 

 gradually fading on the nape into the general hue of the upper parts, much darker 

 brown than the rest, contrasting, though not abruptly, with the fulvous of the cheeks ; 

 chin white, and shoulders and sides of the neck densely mottled with ill-defined dull 



* " Deer of several kinds, one a beautiful animal of the size of a Hare," are noti- 

 ced as occurring upon Myn Pat, in Digurjah, in the Bengal Sporting Magazine for 

 1840,536. 



Mr. Hodgson has since noted the occurrence of a species which he considers new, 

 and styles Tragulus mimenoides, in his Classified Catalogue of tbe Mammals of 

 Nepal, Jour. As. Soc. 1840, 914. The generic appellation Tragulus, it may be 

 remarked, applied by the late Mr. Bennett to the Chevrotains, was pre-bestowed by 

 Col. Hamilton Smith on a group of small African Antelopes. 



f When this was being mounted, 1 had the living one, which had been turned loose 

 into a small enclosure, caught, that its form might be better imitated in the stuffed 

 specimen ; and the strength and vigorous resistance offered by the little creature, 

 when taken, after rather a tiresome chase, were quite surprising: it struggled most 

 violently, using its sharp hoofs with some effect; and, had it been a male, would 

 doubtless have inflicted bad wounds with its tusks. This little animal is of a very in- 

 dolent disposition, at least by day, when I have never known it move voluntarily from 

 the bush under which it squats; upon being disturbed, it plunges among the herbage 

 exactly like a Hog Deer. — E. B. 



