1846.] the Malayan Peninsula and Islands. 189 



" Tupai tana" of the Malays of Pinang. 

 Hab. —Pinang, Singapore, Malayan Peninsula. 

 Sumatra, Java, Borneo. 

 The young of this very numerous species in hilly jungle, is easily 

 tamed, and becomes familiar with its feeder, though towards strangers 

 it retains its original mistrust, which in mature age is scarcely reclaim- 

 able. In a state of nature it lives singly or in pairs, fiercely attacking 

 intruders of its own species. When several are confined together, they 

 fight each other, or jointly attack and destroy the weakest. The natu- 

 ral food is mixed insectivorous and frugivorous. In confinement, indivi- 

 duals may be fed exclusively on either, though preference is evinced for 

 insects ; and eggs, fish, and earth-worms, are equally relished. A short 

 peculiar tremulous whistling sound, often heard by calls and an- 

 swers, in the Malayan jungle, marks their pleasurable emotions, as 

 for instance, on the appearance of food, while the contrary is ex- 

 pressed by shrill protracted cries. Their disposition is very restless, 

 and their great agility enables them to perform the most extraordi- 

 nary bounds in all directions, in which exercise they spend the day, till 

 night sends them to sleep in their rudely constructed lairs in the highest 

 branches of trees. At times they will sit on their haunches, holding 

 their food between the fore-legs, and after feeding, they smooth the head 

 and face with both fore-paws, and lick the lips and palms. They are 

 also fond of water, both to drink and to bathe in. The female usually 

 produces one young ; she has four mammae, the anterior pair of which 

 is situated on the lower lateral part of the chest, the posterior on the 

 side of the abdomen. On the lower surface of the tongue, the frenum 

 is continued to within a short distance of the apex in a raised line, on 

 either side of which the skin is thickened, fringed at the edges, and 

 thus presenting a rudimentary sublingual appendage, somewhat similar 



from whence it came, and to prevent its following the fate of Colonel Farquhar's 

 Rhizomys, we here afford a copy of it." PI. XII l£ represents no Herpestes : the 

 elongated muzzle, the proximity of the large eye to the ear, which is exposed, and not 

 hidden by the hairs of the cheek, are characters foreign to every known species of 

 Herpestes. The draughtsman has very correctly represented a Tupaia, and the draw- 

 ing, reappearing as a Herpestes in the Calcutta Journal of Natural History, has, by 

 Mr. Blyth, been traced to be the original of PL IX, Asiatic Researches, Vol. XIV, 

 where it properly accompanies the description of S or ex Glis, (u e. Tupaia ferrugi- 

 neaj of MM. Diard and Duvaucel. 



