162 



Mammalogy of the Himalayas. 



[July 



EDENTATA. 



Of this family, the only species known to inhabit the Continent of 

 Asia, the short-tailed Manis, or Scaly Anteaterof authors {Manis peiita^ 

 dactyla of Linnaeus, M. macronra of Desmarest) is found in the lower 

 and less elevated parts of the central regions : but all the Edentata are 

 essentially inhabitants of the warmer parts of the earth, more especially 

 of tropical America, and we cannot therefore expect to find their forms 

 reproduced in the Himalayas. Mr. Hodgf^on has described the Manis of 

 Nepal as a new species, under the name of M. auritus,^ on the supposi- 

 tion of its being distinct from the common species of the plains of Upper 

 India, the BadjarMta of the Bengalese (M. macroura), which has been 

 known ever since the expedition of Alexander the Great, and is men- 

 tioned by iElian under the name of (pa77a<^rjc but Mr. Hodgson in 

 this, as in many other instances, has been misled by Griffith's Transla- 

 tion of the Begne Animal, a compilation which has obtained a much 

 greater authority in India than its merits entitle it to, or than it enjoys 

 at home. 



PACHYDERMATA. 



The great Saul Forest, which extends for many hundred miles along the 

 bases of the Himalayan Mountains, affords shelter to vast multitudes of 

 animals, of which it is probable that many species still remain undescrib- 

 ed. Among other genera, the large Pachydermata abound in these situ - 

 ations; the Elephant and Rhinoceros {Elephas indicus and Rhinoceros 

 unicornis)^ are extremely numerous ; and in the rainy season, or in times 

 of scarcity, make frequent inroads into the lower hills, and commit great 

 depredations among the crops of the natives. The Indian Rhinoceros 

 affords a remarkable instance of the obstructions which the progress of 

 knowledge may suffer, and the gi'oss absurdities which not unfrequently 

 result from the wrong application of a name. This animal, to whose horn 

 the superstition of the Persians and Arabs has in all ages attributed 

 peculiar virtues, became known to the Greeks through the description of 

 Ctesias a credulous physician of that nation, who appears to have re- 

 sided at the court of Persia in the time of the younger Cyrus, about 

 4C0 years before the birth of Christ. His account, though mixed up 

 with a great deal of credulous absurdity, contains a very tolerable and 

 perfectly recognizable description of the Rhinoceros, under the ridiculous 

 name, however, of the Indian Ass; and as he attributed to it a whole hoof, 



• Journ. A3. Soc, V. 234. 



