448 



Asiatic Society. 



[No. 125. 



exists very generally in the domestic state, particularly in the southern provinces. 

 Those we saw about the capital were short-limbed, compactly made, and often with- 

 out horns, being never of the white or grey color so prevalent among the cattle of 

 Hindoslan. They also want the hump over the shoulders which characterizes the 

 latter. They are used only in agricultural labour, for their milk is too trifling in 

 quantity to be useful, and the slaughter of them, publicly at least, is forbidden even to 

 strangers. Hence, during our stay, our servants were obliged to go three or four 

 miles out of town, and to slaughter the animals at night. The wild cattle, for the 

 protection of religion does not extend to them, are shot by professed hunters on 

 account of their hides, horns, bones, and flesh, which last, after being converted into 

 jerked beef, forms an article of commerce with China." — Mission to Siam and Cochin 

 China, page 431.* 



From Dr. Wallich, the Society has received another specimen of Paradoxurus 

 typus, recent. 



From P. Homphrey, Esq., a recent young specimen of Pteromys Oral, Tickell, 

 procured at Midnapore. 



From T. H. Maddock, Esq., Secretary to Government, four heads of Rhinoceroses, 

 from Tenasserim; two of them belonging to the common Indian species (Rh. Indi- 

 cusj, and the others to the oriental double-horned Rhinoceros (Rh. Sumatrensis). 

 The fact of all three of the Asiatic species of this genus inhabiting the Tenasserim 

 Provinces was first made known in Dr. Heifer's list of the animal productions of 

 that region, published in J. A. S. VII. 860; and that "a double-horned Rhi- 

 noceros is said to have been seen by the natives in the neighbourhood of Ye," is 

 stated in the ' Bengal Sporting Magazine' for August, 1841; where, however, it would 

 accordingly appear to be much rarer than the single-horned, "of which latter several 

 have been shot by Europeans. They frequent the large jungles to the Eastward, but 

 are more often met with in the jungles South of Ye." According to Dr. Heifer, it 

 would, on the contrary, appear, that the double-horned is the prevalent species in that 

 range of territory. "The Rh. Indicus," he informs us, " is found in the northern 

 parts of the provinces, in that high range of mountains bordering on Zimmay, called 

 the Elephant's-tail Mountains ; the Rh. Sondaicus occupies the southernmost parts ; 

 while the Rh. Sumatrensis, or double-horned species, is to be found throughout the 



* It is difficult to comprehend what animal can be meant by the Gyall of Bishop Heber's 

 Journal, briefly noticed, and very rudely figured, as having been seen by that prelate in the Go- 

 vernor's Park in Ceylon ; and equally difficult to understand what the following passage alludes to, 

 in Mrs. Graham's work. At the Governor's house in Ceylon, this lady " saw, feeding by himself, 

 an animal no less beautiful than terrible,— the wild bull, whose milk-white hide is adorned with a 

 black flowing mane." Let me mention here, also, that there is a wild race inhabiting Madagascar 

 that merits investigation. In Mr. Ellis's History of that Island, we read, that—" horned cattle are 

 numerous, both tame and wild : many of the latter resemble, in shape and size, the cattle of 

 Europe," whereas the domestic are all humped like those of India. Pennant notices this wild 

 Madagascar race by the name of Boury. There is also some animal bearing the appellation of 

 " Wild Cow," which is met with in herds on the route from Agra to Barielly ; and there are many 

 wild humped cattle, of the common Indian species, said to be merely the descendants of domestic 

 individuals, found in herds in certain of the jungles of the province of Oude, which are extremely 

 shy and difficult of approach, and are of some interest as solving the problem in the affirmative as 

 to whether the Zebu could maintain itself wild in regions inhabited by the Tiger (vide Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society, IX. 623, and Transactions of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society 



India, VII. 112. 



