1840.] 



Mammalogy of the Himalayas. 



153 



and Jumna,* and Bernier, whilst travelling to Cashmere, in the train of 

 Aurungzebe, had frequent opportunities of witnessing the chace of this 

 animal : the amusement was reserved for the Emperor alone, and the 

 success of a day's sport was recorded by the Imperial Historiographer in 

 the annals of the empire. The same indifference to climate character- 

 ises the Lion in Africa; in the time of Herodotus and Aristotle, he was 

 common among the coldest mountains of Macedon ; at the present day 

 he is as often found among the snowy peaks of the Atlas, or on the chilly 

 slopes of the Snueuberg, as in the desert of Barca, or on the banks of 

 the Gareip. Travellers should look for him to the east of the Brahma- 

 pootra, as though not known to inhabit any part of Eastern India, the 

 Burmese are said to have figures which can be intended for no other 

 animal, an^ which can only have been drawn from the living model. The 

 Tiger and Leopard are well known to inhabit every part of the Himalay- 

 as, even to the line of perpetual congelation : they exist equally in Japan, 

 in the Caucasus, and in the Altai Mountains in Southern Siberia.| The 

 Tiger of Bockhara is less than the Bengal variety, and chiefly confined 

 to the Valley of the Oxus;| whilst in Japan he is covered with a thick 

 coat of long soft fur, to protect him from the rigours of that northern 

 climate. The Cheetah is said by Mr. Hodgson § to occur chiefly among 

 the lower valleys of the Himalayas, but Pallas found it as far north as 

 the Caspian Sea and the deserts of the Khirgis Tartars, so that it may 

 possibly ascend the Hills to a greater height than has yet been suspected. 

 Lieut. Smith mentions a small dark coloured variety of the Leopard, 

 called Luc kur -hacker^ extremely fierce, and common in every part of the 

 Hills. 



Among the smaller species of the genus Felis^ the Moormi Cat (^Felis 

 moo7'mansis) first described by Mr. Hodgson, and hitherto observed only 

 by that gentleman, as likewise the Fclis Bengalensis or nepalensis, are 

 stated to inhabit the middle terraces of Nepal§. The Felis Viverrinus^ 

 first described by Mr. Bennet|| in 1833, and three years afterwards by 

 Mr. Hodgson, under the nearly identical name of Felis Viverriceps^^ in- 

 habits the lower terraces and valleys of the Turai. Felis Chaus, (called 



* I beg to observe here, that I frequently made inquiries on this subject, and could 

 never learn anything positive on the subject ; nor had any of the numerous sportsmen 

 to whom I spoke on the subject, ever seen a Lion or its sliin, obtained from within the 

 Himalayas. At present, the Lion is I believe only found to the west of the Jumna, espe» 

 cially on the edge of the desert, near Hansi. J. F. R. 



+ Pallas Zoog. Res., i. 16. i Burnes' Travels, ii. 178. 



I Zool Pioc, ii. 97. 11 Zool. Proc, i. 68, 



IT Journal Asiat. Soc, v. 233. 



