184/.] On the Cat-toed Sub plantigrades. 1113 



On the Cat-toed Subplantigrades of the sub- Himalayas. 

 By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



Amongst the very numerous mammals of these regions (135 species) 

 the most interesting and least understood group is that I have deno- 

 minated after Colonel Smith, the Cat-toed Subplantigrades, and to those 

 who are still disposed to assert that the filum areadneum of natural 

 classification can be traced by poring, how sedulously soever, over dry 

 skins and drier bones, I recommend half an hour's consideration of the 

 present group. All is chaos in recent systems with regard to the rela- 

 tions and position of these animals, which are represented in the sub- 

 Himalayas by the Wahs or Pandas, and by the Screwtails, and constitute 

 respectively the genera Ailurus and Paradoxurus of Cuvier, to which 

 Colonel Smith adds Galidictis (Galictis of Geoff.) I cannot pretend to 

 remove this cimmerian darkness because it results from want of adequate 

 information relative to the general structure, habits and economy, not 

 merely of the species composing these two (or three) genera, but also of 

 those constituting nearly all of the proximate forms. At least I do not 

 find any adequate account of the majority of them, and I do find 

 the greatest differences of opinion as to their true characters and rela- 

 tions prevailing among our most recent guides in zoology, such as 

 Colonel Smith,* Mr. Gray,f and Mr. Waterhouse,J of whom the first 

 upholds and attempts to carry out Cuvier' s locomotive principle of sub- 

 division, whilst the two latter entirely reject it. Cuvier knew little of 

 the Wahs or of the Screwtails. He defined or rather indicated the 

 Genera late in his career from imperfect specimens transmitted im- 

 mediately after their arrival in the East by Vaucel and Diard, gentle- 

 men whom the Jardin des Plantes sent out to glean that harvest which 

 English perverseness could not or would not take any sensible or in- 

 telligible steps to glean. § I myself assisted Du Vaucel' s researches 



* Nat. Library, XIII. 155-174 and 190-224. 



t Zool. Journal, Oct. 1836 and Catal. Brit. Mus. 1843. 



% Zool. Journal, August 1839. 



§ These steps can be but two, 1st sending 1 out travelling- naturalists, 2nd and far 

 better, establishing- concert with local residents : and that the Zoological Society with a 

 revenue of 12,000£ per annum has yet taken neither, is a strong- proof of radical defect in 

 the proceedings of that Society. 



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