1847.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 879 



A question of priority of publication fairly arises, when a Journal falls 

 into arrear, so that its No. for a particular month is not actually published 

 for several months afterwards. Thus, in No. 29 of the Cal.Journ. N. H., 

 dated April, but published in August, there are papers bearing the author's 

 date of May ! Which, therefore, in doubles emplois cases is to be considered 

 the date of publication of a particular name ? Surely not April, for an article 

 written in May ! The obviously correct mode is to have the actual date of 

 publication printed on each No. of a periodical, as is now done on the cover 

 of the Society's Journal : though as the latter is generally thrown away 

 when the volumes are bound up, a more permanent place of record is desir- 

 able. 



In Archibuteo criptogenys, Hodgson, published in the same No. of the Cal. 

 Journ. N. H., I think I recognise my A. hemiptilopus, J. A. S. XV, p. 1. 

 Butaquila strophiata, H., is, I very strongly suspect, the Hieraetus pennatus 

 (v. Spizaetus milvoides of Jerdon), which is not rare in Lower Bengal during 

 the cold season. With reference to the remarks on the other Indian Buz- 

 zards, it may further be mentioned that besides Buteo rufinus (v. canescens, 

 v. longipes), — which is common in Lower Bengal above the tideway of the 

 rivers, — Mr. Jerdon has described a B. rufiventer in the supplement to his 

 catalogue of the birds of peninsular India, Madr. Journ. XIII, 165 ; and that 

 my B.pygmaus (nee nanus), J. A. S. XIV, 177, has hitherto been observed 

 only on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal. 



Felis Ogilbii, Hodgson, (ibid. p. 44,) would appear to be the same small 

 Cat which Mr. Gray has named F. Charltoni (from a Darjeeling specimen), 

 as noticed in note to p. 865 ante, and which I consider to be a mere variety of 

 F. bengalensis (v. nipalensis, &c. &c.) — F. macrocelis (v. macroceloides), per- 

 fectly identical with the Sikim animal, inhabits the mountains of Arracan, as 

 shown by a skin in the Society's Museum : and as several Malayan animals 

 extend their range to Arracan, and as there is considerable diversity in the 

 ground colouring and general appearance of two Sikim specimens of this 

 Cat in the Society's collection, I doubt exceedingly whether any sufficient di- 

 versity has been observed between the Sikim, Tibet, and Arracan speci- 

 mens of it, on the one hand, and the Sumatran specimens on the other, to 

 warrant their being assumed to be distinct, however remarkable and unusual 

 this geographic range. 



Lastly, respecting the alleged five species of four-horned Antelope, also 

 noticed in the same No. of the C. J. N. H., it appears to me that they may 

 be safely again reduced to two, viz. Tefraceros quadricornis, v. chickera, 

 and T. sub quadricornis, Elliot. T. iodes, H., as described, applies exactly 

 to the Bengal animal, in every particular ; and among the fine series of 

 specimens in the Society's Museum, there is one of a young male (that I 

 had alive) with the fore and hind horns of the same relative size as in Hard- 

 wicke's figure (Lin. Tr. XIV, tab. 15), but the position of the horns in that 

 figure is erroneous, as shown by reference to the attached description, and I 

 was informed that the skeleton in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, London, was that of the identical individual figured by Gen. 

 Hard wicke, the horns in this being placed as usual in the Bengal animal. 

 When at Midnapore, last cold season, I saw together, in the possession of 

 O. W. Malet, Esq., a pair of the common T. quadricornis, and a pair of what 

 I considered to be Mr. Elliot's T. sub quadricornis j both (as I understood) 

 from the jungles at no great distance from that station, where I myself 

 obtained a fawn of the former species : and this adds to the probabili- 

 ty of both species being likewise found in the sub-Ilimalayan sal forest : 

 indeed, they both also occur in Southern India, for Mr. Elliot some time ago 

 sent me for recognition a skin of T. quadricornis procured in the Wynaad. 



