1859.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 283 



15. The Rev. II. Baker, Junr., of Mundakyum, Alipi, Southern 

 Malabar. A donation of the following specimens from that vicinity. 



MAMMALIA. 



Presbytis cucullatus; Semnopithecus cucullatus, Is. Geoffroy (badly 

 figured in the Atlas to Belanger's Voyage) : S. jubatus, Wagner (in 

 Schreber's Supplement, a much better figure) : S. Johnii apud Martin. 

 The great black Monkey of the JNilgiris and Malabar ghats, which has 

 been much confounded with Pr. Johnii (verus), also of the Malabar 

 ghats, and to which the following synonyms apply : — Simia Johnii, Fischer, 

 ■ — Semnopithecus hypoleucos, nobis, J. A, S. X, 839, — and S. Dussumieri, 

 Is. Geoffroy. The latter species, or true Johnii, is described as a variety 

 of the Johnii by Mr. Martin, who erroneously refers the great black 

 species of the Nilgiris and Malabar to the same. " The cry of woo-woo," 

 remarks Mr. Baker, " heard in the Malabar jungles, was supposed by Mr. 

 Ogilby to intimate the presence of some Gibbon (Hylobates) ; but it is 

 simply the call of the Pr. cucullatus. The Lion Monkey (true sile- 

 nus)," he adds, " is found up to Goa and all through the hills, but only in 

 the lonely dense forests ; the call of the male is precisely the ' cooyeh' 

 of a native who has lost his way and is shouting for help." # 



Loris gracilis, (Geoffroy). Imperfect flat skin. 



Rhinolophus affinis (?), Horsfield (vide J. A. S. XXI, 346) ; a dark- 

 coloured specimen; and Nycticejus Temminckii, also dark-coloured — 

 as in fact are most of the skins of mammalia from Malabar and Tra- 

 vancore. 



Flat skins also of Viverricula malaccensis, Herpestes fuscus, 

 H. g-riseus, Felis celidogaster (v. viverrina, &c), F. bengalensis, 

 and F. chaus ; and a skull of Lutra nair, undistinguishable from the 

 common Gangetic Otter referred to L. sinensis, Gray, v. tarayensis, Hodg- 

 son. 



Of Felis celidogaster, Mr. Baker remarks—" This wild Cat grows 

 very large and often kills parid Dogs, aud I have known instances of 

 slave children (infants) being taken from the huts. I scarcely believed 

 the fact, till a very large one was traced up after badly injuring a child 

 from which it was beaten off, and in the act of killing a young calf. F. 

 chaus is very common." In Bengal the F. celidogaster is mainly a 



* In a subsequent letter, Mr. Baker writes— the Pr. cucullatus " is found 

 in all the Travancore and Cochin woods, also the Nilgiris and Pulneys ; but the 

 Vella Munthee, the other Presbytis of S. India, replaces it in the plains of 

 Malabar and Coimbatore, and is called Hunuman by the Hindus here, though 

 they also reverence the Toque, Macacus radiatus." 



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