1842.] Asiatic Society. 451 



Rusa found in the western forests, which is common also to all the heavy jungles of 

 Southern India." None of the descriptions given by Hamilton Smith to the different 

 Indian species under the names of Hippelaphus , Aristotelis, Equinus, apply exactly 

 to it, but I have little doubt that all three are varieties of the great Indian Stag referred 

 to Hippelaphus of Aristotle by M. Duvaucel, and to which it is not improbable that 

 the C. unicolor, or Gona of Ceylon, is likewise referrible, &c." For my own part, I 

 had an opportunity of examining several pairs of antlers of the peninsular animal 

 while at Madras, and I considered them to be genuine Sambur, and I much incline 

 to agree with Mr. Elliot in the opinion that there is probably but this one species of the 

 group inhabiting Peninsular India, though it is quite certain that there are two others 

 in the northern hills, as was first satisfactorily shewn by Mr. Hodgson. 



From Lieutenant Tickell, a highly interesting collection has been received of 

 specimens procured at Chyebassa; viz. 



Cheiroptera: Twelve skins, referrible to five species; viz. a Rhinolophus, two 

 specimens ; Vespertilio pictus, four specimens* ; another and much larger species, 

 allied in its colour and markings to the preceding, but very different in the quality of 

 its fur, three specimens ; a small dark species, apparently the same as is very com- 

 mon about Calcutta, two specimens ; and a beautiful Scotophilus, of a bright golden 

 fulvous colour on the under-parts, one specimen. These I shall endeavour to deter- 

 mine as I find leisure to undertake the task, but the descriptions to which I have 

 access are, for the most part, too meagre to permit of arriving at satisfactory conclu- 

 sions from them. 



Pteromys Oral, Tickell: five specimens; suggested by me on former occasions to be 

 identical with Pt. petaurista, to which it is very nearly allied ; but its size is inferior, 

 and colour comparatively devoid of any rufous tinge. On comparing the skull, that of 

 Oral is shorter and smaller, with the superior orbital margin and post-orbital process 

 conspicuously less developed, the upper rodential tusks are directed more abruptly 

 downwards, and the series of grinders are more than proportionally smaller. I have 

 had the skulls prepared of both the adult and young PL Oral. 

 Cervus (Styloceros) Muntjac : a nearly grown female. 



C. (Rusa) Hippelaphus : skin of a fine male, prepared for stuffing ; but unfortunate- 

 ly too much injured by insects to be available for the purpose. The head of this speci- 

 men has already been noticed, and compared with that of the Himalayan Jerrow. 



Tetraceros chickera : labelled Antilope chiclcera, and I believe correctly referred to 

 that species of Major General Hardwicke, (Lin. Trans. XIV. b'lQ,J though being a 

 young kid, the species is difficult to determine with absolute certainty. The skeleton 

 of the original specimen described by Hardwicke, and beautifully figured from life 

 by Hill, is deposited in the rich Museum of the London Royal College of Surgeons : 

 as often happens with captive sheath-horned ruminants, the blunt-tipped superficial 

 sheathing which temporarily invests the harder permanent sheath of the horns of the 

 young animal, had been retained in this adult specimen, which Dr. Leach not under- 

 standing, he was led to consider as belonging to a different species, the frontlet of a 

 wild-shot specimen in the same collection, which he has styled T. striaticornis. A 

 true second four-horned species, however, has been described by Walter Elliot, Esq., 



* This occurs in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. — E, B. 



3 o 



