1848.] Anatomy of Ailurus, Porcula, and Stylocerus. 487 



wild types of Bos, as above defined, and if so, they should be at once and 

 exclusively substituted and cited. Bubalus is the tropical, Bos the 

 temperate, and Bison the Arctic, type. We cannot therefore look for a 

 true wild Bos in India where it is represented by the very distinct but 

 allied forms Bibos et Gavseus. The range of these latter beyond India 

 is unknown; but judging by Cuvier's expressions I should say that some 

 of his fossil and extant animals belong to one or the other. Genus 

 Bibos. Character. After Cranium massive, add, nor compressed nor 

 depressed. Genus Bison. Add as a note. Blumenbach says the 

 Aurochs has a suborbital sinus. This, if correct, must refer to the 

 scull some slight depression on which may indicate an embryotic char- 

 acter of analogy with other genera. But, as already observed, no 

 osteological indication of that sort can be admitted as a generic charac- 

 ter, for there is no developed and apparent organ. The Bison has 

 some singular analogies with the cervidse and this may be one of them. 

 The Yak, a genuine Bison, has no trace of real suborbital sinus. I have 

 now two female Yaks which came to me in December enceinte. They 

 calved in April and July ; and I am assured that the domestic Yak 

 drops its calf at all seasons save dead winter. One of my young ones is 

 very vigorous and sprightly, and its mother also : the other, dead. 



Genus Bubalus : for Types Bubalus buffelus et B. Arna, read, Type 

 Bubalus Arna, and add to the note, after " true Buffaloes," of which 

 the Arna is the unquestionable, best and sufficient type. The tame 

 animal is therefore needlessly as falsely cited. 



It having been asserted in the Journal, No. 177, that that noblest of 

 all the Indian Cervines, C. Affinis, is, in fact, not an Indian species at 

 all, but an American, of which my sample was purchased for the Court 

 of Nepal by its Vakeel at Calcutta, I beg to state, first, that this idle 

 story, originating with the vanity of the Upadhyas, was, with all the 

 other circumstances of the case, thoroughly sifted by me and the Dur- 

 bar before I published the species, and, next, that having referred the 

 point a fresh to the present Resident Major Thoresby upon the appear- 

 ance of the cited No. of the Journal ; that gentleman wrote me as fol- 

 lows : "The story trumped up in the Journal, is baseless. The Deer in 

 question was shot in the Morang, so far as appears in Ran Bahadur's 

 time, as was stated to you after much investigation." 



