1116 On the Cat-toed Subplantigrades. [Nov. 



rous diggers, dwelling in cavities of their own formation, whereas the 

 wahs are vegetalivorous climbers, frequenting trees much, but breeding 

 and feeding chiefly on the ground, and having their retreat in the na- 

 tural resiliencies of rocks. They are monogamous, and live in pairs or 

 small families, consisting of the parents and offspring, who all remain 

 together till the next brood is about to appear, when the mother drives 

 the grown young off. How long the female gestates I cannot learn, but 

 she brings forth amid the recesses of the rocks in spring or early sum- 

 mer, almost always two at a birth, one of which is frequently much 

 larger than the other, though the sexes at maturity hardly differ in size 

 and not at all in aspect, nor the young from the parents in the latter 

 respect. The Ailuri feed on fruits, tuberous roots, thick sprouts such 

 as those of the Chinese bamboo,* acorns, beech mast and eggs. The 

 last they are very fond of, and eating them is the nearest approach they 

 make to animal food, unless we must also add to the list of their eatables 

 the young of birds and of small mammals — which I doubt, though 

 I am assured of the fact. In general the wahs eschew flesh, fish, in- 

 sects, reptiles, absolutely. But they love milk and ghee, and constant- 

 ly make their way furtively into remote dairies and cowherds' cottages 

 to possess themselves of those luxuries. Their ordinary feeding times 

 are early morn and eve. They sleep a deal in the day and dislike 

 strong lights, though not nocturnal in their habits of seeking food. Their 

 manners are staid and tranquil : their movements slow and deliberate : 

 their tempers placid and docile, so that they are easily tamed and may 

 be suffered to go abroad soon after they are taken, even though mature 

 and still more if young. They are delicate animals and cannot endure 

 heat at all, nor cold well, amply and entirely as they are clad in fur. 

 They are not pugnacious nor noisy, but remarkably the contrary of 

 both. As climbers no quadrupeds can surpass, and very few equal 

 them, but on the ground they move awkwardly as well as slowly, yet 

 without any special embarrassment. Their slow action is a perfectly 

 plantigrade walk ; their quick, a series of bounds with the wrists 

 touching the ground, but not the tarse, nor of course the heel, and the 

 back always, though more especially in quick movements, much arched, 

 but the tail little raised even under excitement. Saving the last parti- 

 cular, such in action is the Marten of these Hills (Flavigula) and the 

 * Hence one of their names, viz. NigaJya-ponya. 



