168' 



Mammalogy of the Himalayas. 



[July 



Any one acquainted with the Necl-gJiau will readil}^ perceive the appli- 

 cability of this passage to its most obvious characters : in fact Aristotle's 

 description of this animal, under the name of IlippeJaphuSy is more 

 exact and minute than the description of any other animal mentioned in 

 his history ; it is evidently taken from personal observation, and it is sur- 

 prising that the application should have hitherto escaped the penetration 

 both of critics and Zoologists. The older naturalists, such as Gesner and 

 Aldrovandus may be excused for misapplying the passage in question, 

 sometimes to the Elk, sometimes to the common Stag in his winter-dress, 

 when the hair of the neck becomes longer than ordinary, since they were 

 unacquainted with the form and characters of the Neel-gliau ; but the 

 continuation of the mistake by their successors, to whom the animal has 

 been long familiar, is altogether unpardonable. This identification, 

 indeed, was absurd enough from the beginning : the habitat of Arachosia, 

 and the assigned form of the horns, were alone sufficient to distinguish 

 the Hippelaphus from either the Elk or common Stag, independently of 

 the critical absurdity of supposing Aristotle to describe such well-known 

 animals at such length and under a new name ; but the truth is, that all 

 modern commentators have been misled by a wrong translation of the term 

 A opicac, employed by Aristotle, as the name of an animal, to the horns 

 of which he compares those of the Hippelaphus. Now, it is to be ob- 

 served that the Dorcas of the Greeks and Romans is universally admitted 

 to be the Gazelle of Egypt and Northern Africa, as may be easily proved 

 from many passages in Herodotus and other ancient writers. Theodore 

 Gaza, himself a Greek, and the first translator of Aristotle, very properly 

 renders the word by capra, but Buffon* having criticised Gaza's igno- 

 ranee, and affirmed that the word should really be translated caprea, 

 every body has since followed the translation of Buffon, and the Dorcas 

 of Aristotle has been accordingly considered identical with the Roe-hick, 

 whilst the Dorcas of all other ancient writers is acknowledged to be the 

 Gazelle. 



This seems to have been one of the principal sources of error which 

 misled Baron Cuvier, after the example of his predecessors, to identify 

 the Hippelaphus of Aristotle with a species of Deer. The head and 

 skin of the large Indian Saumer had been sent to Paris by Diard and 

 Duvaucel ; the hair of the neck was observed to be considerably longer 

 and coarser than that on the rest of the body, the horns had only two 

 antlers, like those of the Roe -buck, and it came from India. Baron Cuvier 

 immediately concluded that he had discovered the real Hippelaphus of 



* Hist. Nat. XI. 402, 



