visited the capital of that country in 1818. They are short, compact, well-made animals, without a hump, and almost without exception of a light fawn-colour relieved with white. The eyes are large and fringed with long white lashes. The legs are delicate and well-shaped. Among all that I saw I did not observe any that were not in excellent condition, in which respect they formed a striking contrast to the cattle generally met with in India. They are universally used in agriculture, and are perfectly domesticated. This breed appears to be quite distinct from the Banteng of Java and the more eastern Islands.”—(Lin. Trans. XIII. 267.)

It is, I suspect, no other than a domesticated race of the "Wild Ox" of Burmah; an evident species, of which abundant notices may be found in various works, but no satisfactory description. A skull of such an animal, but unfortunately deprived of the horns, and which is very distinct in form from that of either of the foregoing species, exists in the London United Service Museum, and is labelled "Bison, from the Keddah Coast." I possess some very carefully prepared drawings of this specimen. Captain Gason, of Her Majesty's 62nd Regiment, who has himself been at the death of a Burmese wild bull, has favored me with the following particulars concerning this species: These animals stand about fifteen hands and a half high, are very gamelooking, with a heavy body, but fine limbs. Their colour is bright yellowishbuff with a black line from the vertex to the tail, the legs black in front, the tips of the ears, muzzle, and tail-tip also black, and the belly perfectly white. There is little or no difference of colour between the sexes. The horns are cylindrical, rather long, and curve round in front to point towards each other. They are excessively timid, and are generally seen feeding in the valleys, often about a large tank." Captain Gason observed them at a place called Nathongzoo, about 250 miles eastward of Moulmein. <s

"

This is doubtless the species which is also mentioned in one of Colonel Hamilton Smith's letters to me, as a " Wild Ox, inhabiting to the eastward of the Boorampooter, and very different from the Gaour and Gayal. It is simply described," writes Colonel Smith, "as a fine-limbed and deer-like animal of great size, and of a bright bay colour, exceedingly like a Devonshire Ox, very active, fleet, shy, and watchful; living in small herds in the wooded valleys, with watchers on the look out, who utter a shrill warning sound on the least alarm, when the whole dash through the jungle with irresistible impetuosity." He elsewhere mentions their having white horns; and in Pennant's Hindostan,' I remember a notice of a wild species with white horns occurring somewhere further to the Eastward; this same work containing also the earliest mention of the Banteng of Java.

In a late number of the Bengal Sporting Magazine,' (for 1841, p. 444,) we are informed, respecting the Burmese Wild Cow, or 'Sine Bar,' that "herds of thirty and forty frequent the open forest jungles [of the Tenasserim Provinces.] They are noblelooking animals, with short curved horns, that admit of a beautiful polish. The cows are red and white, and the bulls of a bluish colour. They are very timid, and not dangerous to approach. Their flesh is excellent. They are the only cows indigenous to the provinces:" yet the preceding paragraph mentions-"The Bison" (Gaour) as attaining a great size in the East.

One more quotation apropós to the foregoing observations, and I shall have done. Mr. Crawfurd informs us, that "The Ox is found wild in the Siamese forests, and

exists very generally in the domestic state, particularly in the southern provinces. Those we saw about the capital were short-limbed, compactly made, and often without horns, being never of the white or grey color so prevalent among the cattle of Hindostan. They also want the hump over the shoulders which characterizes the latter. They are used only in agricultural labour, for their milk is too trifling in quantity to be useful, and the slaughter of them, publicly at least, is forbidden even to strangers. Hence, during our stay, our servants were obliged to go three or four miles out of town, and to slaughter the animals at night. The wild cattle, for the protection of religion does not extend to them, are shot by professed hunters on account of their hides, horns, bones, and flesh, which last, after being converted into jerked beef, forms an article of commerce with China."-Mission to Siam and Cochin China, page 431.*

From Dr. Wallich, the Society has received another specimen of Paradoxurus typus, recent.

From P. Homphrey, Esq., a recent young specimen of Pteromys Oral, Tickell, procured at Midnapore.

From T. H. Maddock, Esq., Secretary to Government, four heads of Rhinoceroses, from Tenasserim; two of them belonging to the common Indian species (Rh. Indicus), and the others to the oriental double-horned Rhinoceros (Rh. Sumatrensis). The fact of all three of the Asiatic species of this genus inhabiting the Tenasserim Provinces was first made known in Dr. Helfer's list of the animal productions of that region, published in J. A. S. VII. 860; and that "a double-horned Rhinoceros is said to have been seen by the natives in the neighbourhood of Ye," is stated in the 'Bengal Sporting Magazine' for August, 1841; where, however, it would accordingly appear to be much rarer than the single-horned, “of which latter several have been shot by Europeans. They frequent the large jungles to the Eastward, but are more often met with in the jungles South of Ye." According to Dr. Helfer, it would, on the contrary, appear, that the double-horned is the prevalent species in that range of territory. "The Rh. Indicus," he informs us, "is found in the northern parts of the provinces, in that high range of mountains bordering on Zimmay, called the Elephant's-tail Mountains; the Rh. Sondaicus occupies the southernmost parts; while the Rh. Sumatrensis, or double-horned species, is to be found throughout the

It is difficult to comprehend what animal can be meant by the Gyall of Bishop Heber's Journal, briefly noticed, and very rudely figured, as having been seen by that prelate in the Governor's Park in Ceylon; and equally difficult to understand what the following passage alludes to, in Mrs. Graham's work. At the Governor's house in Ceylon, this lady "saw, feeding by himself, an animal no less beautiful than terrible,-the wild bull, whose milk-white hide is adorned with a black flowing mane." Let me mention here, also, that there is a wild race inhabiting Madagascar that merits investigation. In Mr. Ellis's History of that Island, we read, that-" horned cattle are numerous, both tame and wild: many of the latter resemble, in shape and size, the cattle of Europe," whereas the domestic are all humped like those of India. Pennant notices this wild Madagascar race by the name of Boury. There is also some animal bearing the appellation of "Wild Cow," which is met with in herds on the route from Agra to Barielly; and there are many wild humped cattle, of the common Indian species, said to be merely the descendants of domestic individuals, found in herds in certain of the jungles of the province of Oude, which are extremely shy and difficult of approach, and are of some interest as solving the problem in the affirmative as to whether the Zebu could maintain itself wild in regions inhabited by the Tiger (vide Journal of the Asiatic Society, IX. 623, and Transactions of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society India, VII, 112.

extent of the territories from the 17° to 10° of latitude." Now, from what is known of the habits of these animals, it is probable that the Rh. Sondaicus will prove to be the principal mountain species, though by no means limited to the mountains. In Java, according to M. Reinwardt, this animal" is found everywhere in the most elevated regions, and ascends, with an astonishing swiftness, even to the highest tops of the mountains" (vide Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine,' XIII. 34); and Dr. Horsfield notices, that "it prefers high situations, but is not limited to a particular region or climate, its range extending from the level of the ocean to the summits of mountains of considerable elevation.*** Its retreats are discovered by deeply excavated passages, which it forms along the declivities of mountains and hills. I found these occasionally of great depth and extent." This species is also an inhabitant of Borneo, where it is styled Bodok; but, according to Sir Stamford Raffles, (Linnæan Transactions,' XII. 269,) it does not appear that a single-horned species inhabits that part of Sumatra with the productions of which he was best acquainted; "and the single horns which are occasionally procured, appear to be merely the larger horns of the two-horned species separated from the small one;" this, however, may be doubted now that the Rh. Sondaicus has proved to be common to Java and Tenasserim, and it appears probable, that while the latter only inhabits Java, it will be found to exist together with Rh. Sumatrensis in Sumatra, as both of these are said to be found together with the Indian species in Tenasserim. Whether more than one exists in Borneo we have at present no data for forming an opinion, and the discovery of the formerly supposed exclusively insular species on the Burmese mainland, casts a doubt upon which is the Chinese species noticed by Du Halde to inhabit the province of Quangsi, in latitude 25 degrees.

From M. J. Athanass, Esq., the Society has received a head, with the skin on, of the great Jerrow Stag of the Himalaya (Cervus Aristotelis), which I exhibit together with a very fine head of the Sambur of India generally (C. hippelaphus). On comparison, it is seen that the former is of a lighter colour, with the hairs more conspicuously tipped with pale fulvous or yellowish-brown; but there is little marked difference between the specimens that would induce a suspicion that they appertained to different species, although the Jerrow is somewhat broader in the forehead, and its antlers are more divergent. Had these antlers belonged to a fully mature animal, however, they would have exhibited a size such as is never attained by those of the Sambur; a magnificent pair in the Museum of the Hon'ble Company in London are nearly four feet in length; whereas it is rare that those of the Sambur exceed two feet and a half. This I am enabled to assert with more confidence, since I have examined numerous bales of Stag-antlers imported from this country, in the hope of discovering among them some belonging to new or little known species; but I have invariably found these packages to consist solely of those of the Sambur and spotted Axis, generally in about equal proportion, and have never once thus met with a specimen of a Sambur antler that approached in magnitude to that of an adult Jerrow. Mr. Hodgson has distinguished these species in the Society's Journal, (I. 66,) together with another which I am enabled to state positively is the C. niger of Prof. de Blainville (Bull, des Sc. 1816), and which is styled by Mr. Hodgson Rusa Nipalensis. The latter naturalist has supplied representations of the antlers of all three species, which are published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, I. 115. "The Nipalese," he remarks,

"distinguish them with reference to the different shades of their, in general, uniform dark colour, by the epithets Phusro, Ráto, and Kâlo, or grey, red, and black, Jarai [Jerrow.] The Phusro is the largest, being not less than a Horse in size; and has his dark hide copiously sprinkled with phusro or hoary. The Râto is the next in point of size, and is of a redder hue. The Kâlo is the smallest, and of a shining clear black. All but the Kâlo species have a subterminal, as well as a brow antler." M. Blainville described his C. niger from a drawing which he saw at the India House, together with certain other drawings upon which he has founded his Capra cossus, C. imberbis, &c., and although these drawings could not then be found when I applied to see them some two or three years ago, I have since met with duplicates of them among those of the late Dr. Buchanan Hamilton, in charge of Dr. Wallich, marked, too, as having been (i. e. the originals) delivered at the India House in 1806, and the names are in Dr. Buchanan Hamilton's own writing which have been adopted by M. Blainville, except that the Goats are better styled Capra Ægagrus Cossea and Ægagrus imber bis, being clearly and obviously mere varieties of the common domestic species. The colour of C. niger (Buchanan Hamilton and Blainville) is represented brownish black, and the antlers, in accordance with Mr. Hodgson's description, have no subterminal branch or tine; indeed they so nearly resemble the figure in the Society's Journal, X. 722, that it might be supposed that both were drawn from the same individual.

With respect to the C. equinus of Colonel H. Smith, (which is not the Malayan species so denominated by Baron Cuvier, ) if it really differ from the Sambur, it is probably the C. Leschenaultii of Baron Cuvier (Ossemens Fossiles', IV. 32.) I have examined and possess figures of the frontlet of the identical individual described and figured from life by Colonel Smith, which is now preserved in the Museum of the London Royal College of Surgeons. The antlers measure two feet four inches in length, and eight inches round above the burr, with a brow-process fourteen inches long; their widest portion apart is twenty-two inches and a half, the tips returning to twenty inches, and those of the upper tine to fourteen inches; they have a differently granulated surface from ordinary Sambur and Jerrow antlers, being angulated and prickly instead of smooth to the feel, however coarsely tuberculated may be the others; and the tail of the animal is represented in Colonel Smith's figure to be slender and not bushy, in lieu of presenting that appearance which in the others has been compared to the tail of a docked horse that has been neglected; the caudal disk, likewise, would appear to be more conspicuously developed, though it is doubtful whether either of these characters is of constant or normal occurrence: still it is worthy of remark that Colonel Sykes, in his Catalogue of the Mammalia of the Dukhun, (' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1831, 104,) considers the large Rusa Stag which " abounds about the ghâts of Dukhun and in Khandesh as no doubt the same as the Malayan Rusa figured in Griffith's work. It wants the size of the C. Aristotelis [Hippelaphus] of Bengal, and is not so dark in colour"; and it should be observed that C. Leschenaultii of Cuvier was received from the Coromandel Coast. But Mr. Walter Elliot, in his recent Catalogue of Mammalia in the Southern Mahratta Country, (Madras Journal,' No. XXV, 220), asserts, that "there is only one species of

This difference might depend, however, upon the animal being then, perhaps, shedding its coat.

Rusa found in the western forests, which is common also to all the heavy jungles of Southern India." None of the descriptions given by Hamilton Smith to the different Indian species under the names of Hippelaphus, Aristotelis, Equinus, apply exactly to it, but I have little doubt that all three are varieties of the great Indian Stag referred to Hippelaphus of Aristotle by M. Duvaucel, and to which it is not improbable that the C. unicolor, or Goña of Ceylon, is likewise referrible, &c." For my own part, I had an opportunity of examining several pairs of antlers of the peninsular animal while at Madras, and I considered them to be genuine Sambur, and I much incline to agree with Mr. Elliot in the opinion that there is probably but this one species of the group inhabiting Peninsular India, though it is quite certain that there are two others in the northern hills, as was first satisfactorily shewn by Mr. Hodgson.

From Lieutenant Tickell, a highly interesting collection has been received of specimens procured at Chyebassa; viz.

Cheiroptera: Twelve skins, referrible to five species; viz. a Rhinolophus, two specimens; Vespertilio pictus, four specimens*; another and much larger species, allied in its colour and markings to the preceding, but very different in the quality of its fur, three specimens; a small dark species, apparently the same as is very common about Calcutta, two specimens; and a beautiful Scotophilus, of a bright golden fulvous colour on the under-parts, one specimen. These I shall endeavour to determine as I find leisure to undertake the task, but the descriptions to which I have access are, for the most part, too meagre to permit of arriving at satisfactory conclusions from them.

Pieromys Oral, Tickell: five specimens; suggested by me on former occasions to be identical with Pt. petaurista, to which it is very nearly allied; but its size is inferior, and colour comparatively devoid of any rufous tinge. On comparing the skull, that of Oral is shorter and smaller, with the superior orbital margin and post-orbital process conspicuously less developed, the upper rodential tusks are directed more abruptly downwards, and the series of grinders are more than proportionally smaller. I have had the skulls prepared of both the adult and young Pt. Oral.

Cervus (Styloceros) Muntjac: a nearly grown female.

C. (Rusa) Hippelaphus : skin of a fine male, prepared for stuffing; but unfortunately too much injured by insects to be available for the purpose. The head of this specimen has already been noticed, and compared with that of the Himalayan Jerrow.

Tetraceros chickera: labelled Antilope chickera, and I believe correctly referred to that species of Major General Hardwicke, (Lin. Trans. XIV. 520,) though being a young kid, the species is difficult to determine with absolute certainty. The skeleton of the original specimen described by Hardwicke, and beautifully figured from life by Hill, is deposited in the rich Museum of the London Royal College of Surgeons : as often happens with captive sheath-horned ruminants, the blunt-tipped superficial sheathing which temporarily invests the harder permanent sheath of the horns of the young animal, had been retained in this adult specimen, which Dr. Leach not understanding, he was led to consider as belonging to a different species, the frontlet of a wild-shot specimen in the same collection, which he has styled T. striaticornis. A true second four-horned species, however, has been described by Walter Elliot, Esq., " This occurs in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. -E. B.