1114 On the Cat-toed Subplantigrades. [Nov. 



with alacrity. But at the same time I stated to the leaders of this 

 science in England what a pity it was that want of ordinary measures on 

 their part to secure the co-operation of their countrymen in the East 

 should thus continue to prevent England's reaping the zoological har- 

 vest of her own domains ; and I pointed to my own drawings, specimens 

 and description of the structure and habits of Ailurus lying unused in 

 their hands whilst their Journal was putting forth the mere crumbs 

 gathered from Cuvier's* table, and whilst his active son-in-law was then 

 preparing under my very eye and with my own aid to complete the su- 

 percession of what ought to have been from the first, and might even 

 yet be in part, English researches. How and why my appeal failed 

 I know not. They order these things better in France : and but for the 

 untimely death of Du Vaucel and Diard, not merely the group of the 

 Cat-toed Plantigrades, but every other group of Indian zoology, would 

 have carried the permanent traces of English want, and French posses- 

 sion, of tact! I know not whether this revertence to the past may help 

 to lead to that future concert and co-operation on our own part between 

 the closet and the field, the men of home resources and the men of 

 local opportunities, from which English zoology might yet derive such 

 enormous advantages. But at least it will be allowed that the subject 

 of my present paper has almost irresistably prompted this allusion to the 

 past; for, on recurring to this group of animals after a lapse of 12 to 

 15 years, I find, not only the ample materials placed by me in 1833 

 within reach of my learned countrymen for the illustration of one 

 genus (Ailurus) unused, (save for the completion of the dental formula,) 

 at the sametime that the crudest statements relative to it continue to 

 this hour to be put forth ex cathedra, but also the ample materials 

 for the illustration of the other genus (Paradoxurus) which were not 

 only collected but used and applied by Dr. Campbell and myself in 

 1835, as completely neglected, English writers on Indian zoology seem- 

 ing to opine that it is a work of supererogation to consult the Trans- 

 actions or Journal of the great local organ and channel of scientific re- 

 search !f I do not now possess materials for the elucidation of these 



* Zool. Journal, Vol. IT. 419. Vol. III. 275. 



t As. Trans. Vol. XIX. pp. 72—86, where the structure and habits of 3 species are 

 described very fully: And yet Mr. Gray in 1846 (Catalogue, pp.9, 10) quotes these 

 as undescribed. Nor is there any sign that Mr. Waterhouse or Col. Smith had ever 



