478 Notices of various Mammalia. £No. 150. 



Length of the skull four inches and a half, and breadth across the 

 zygoma two inches and three-quarters ; vertical height two inches 

 and five-eighths ; length of bony palate an inch and a half, and 

 breadth seven-eighths of an inch. Habitat unknown. 



Lemurida. The S ten-ops gracilis is usually assigned to Ceylon, and 

 the Nycticebus tardigradus to Bengal. The latter, however, certainly 

 does not occur in the lower part of Bengal, but may perhaps exist in 

 the hilly regions. Dr. Walker includes it in his catalogue of Assamese 

 Mammalia ; and upon referring to the late Dr. Buchanan Hamilton's 

 MSS., I find what I consider to mean this species, noticed as occur- 

 ring in Chittagong, where it is said to be rare and solitary, inhabiting 

 trees : in Rungpore, also, very scarce, and said to have been seen in the 

 hilly countries to the south and east of the Boorhampooter by some 

 natives, who recognised it by the Hindustanee name Shiriminda 

 Billi ; " bashful or shame- faced Cat," a name which I have also heard 

 applied to it. The unobtrusive, nocturnal habits of this animal would, 

 however, always cause it to be little observed. I believe that it is " the 

 little Bradypus" of Dr. Heifer's ' Note on the Animal productions of 

 the Tenasserim provinces/ being commonly designated " Sloth" by 

 Europeans : and the territories eastward of the Bay constitute, I sus- 

 pect, its chief habitat. A pair of the Stenops gracilis were offered to 

 me in the Madras bazar, at the low price of a rupee ; but I have seen 

 no notice of this species as an ascertained inhabitant of the peninsula.* 

 Here, in Calcutta, a dealer would ask at least ten rupees for a pair 

 either of them or of the Nycticebus, and in all probability double as 

 much.f They are, indeed, but seldom brought for sale in this em- 

 porium : and it is probable that the Nycticebus, if found at all in 

 Bengal, occurs sparingly only a little within the confines of the 

 province. 



Vesper tilionidce. — The only Bat contained among Dr. Heifer's 



Tenasserim specimens was Pteropus javanicus, which, with Nyctice- 



jus Temminckii, he stated to be " amongst the rarer species found in 



the provinces" ; and he alludes vaguely to other species of Pteropus, 



Phyllostomus (meaning probably Megaderma), and Nyctinomus (or 



* It is included in Mr. Elliot's new catalogue of the mammalia of peninsular India, 

 f A pair of the Stenops said to have been brought from Singapore, have just been 

 put up at auction at 60 Rupees ! The Nycticebus is common in Arracan. 



