Chapter 3

SECTION _Felis Tigris_ _Frontispiece_ Skull of _Hylobates hooluck_ 1 _Hylobates lar_; _Hylobates hooluck_ 2 _Presbytes entellus_ 4 " _thersites_ 15 _Macacus silenus_ 17 " _rhesus_ 18 " _nemestrinus_ 20 " _radiatus_ and _Macacus pileatus_ 24 " _cynomolgus_ 26 _Loris gracilis_ and _Nycticebus tardigradus_ 28 _Galaeopithecus volans_ 30 Sternum of _Pteropus_ Cheiroptera The Flying Fox at Home 31 Head of _Pteropus medius_ 31 _Cynopterus marginatus_ 33 _Megaderma lyra_ 36 " _spasma_ 38 _Rhinolophus luctus_ 39 " _ferrum-equinum_ 41 _Phyllorhina armigera_ (male and female) 64 Skull of _Rhinopoma_ 69 _Plecotus auritus_ 77 _Vesperugo noctula_ 78 " _Leisleri_ 89 _Scotophilus Temminckii_ 93 Skull of _Harpiocephalus harpia_ 99 _Vespertilio murinus_ 108 " _formosus_ 116 _Synotus barbastellus_ Genus Barbastellus Dentition of Shrew (magnified) Genus Sorex " of Hedgehog Family Erinaceidae Hedgehog Genus Erinaceus Dentition of _Tupaia_ 158 _Tupaia Peguana_ 159 _Gymnura Rafflesii_ 162 Dentition of Tiger and Indian Black Bear Carnivora " of Bear Ursidae Skull of Bear (under view) Ursidae _Ursus Isabellinus_ 163 " _Tibetanus_ 164 " _Malayanus_ 166 " _labiatus_ 167 _Ailuropus melanoleucos_ 168 _Ailurus fulgens_ 169 _Arctonyx collaris_ 170 _Mellivora Indica_ 174 Skull of _Putorius_ Mustelidae _Martes abietum_ 178 _Mustela_ Genus Mustela Otter's skull (side and under view) Lutridae _Lutra nair_ 195 Skull of Tiger (side view) Felidae Tendons of Tiger's toe Felidae Auditory apparatus of Tiger (section) Felidae _Felis leo_ (Indian variety) 200 Head of Tiger 201 Tiger's skull (under part) 201 _Felis panthera_ (_From a fine specimen in the Regent's Park Gardens_) 203 " _uncia_ 204 " _Diardii_ 205 Skull of _Felis viverrina_ 206 _Felis marmorata_ 207 " _aurata_ 210 " _caracal_ 218 " _jubata_ 219 Skull of _Felis jubata_ 219 Skull of Hyaena Hyaenidae _Hyaena striata_ 220 Dentition of Civet Viverridae _Viverra zibetha_ 221 " _megaspila_ 223 " _Malaccensis_ 224 _Prionodon maculosus_ 226 _Paradoxurus trivirgatus_ 231 _Arctictis binturong_ 235 _Urva cancrivora_ 244 Dentition of Wolf Genus Canis _Canis pallipes_ 245 _Cuon rutilans_ 249 _Platanista Gangetica_ 257 Gangetic Dolphin; Round-headed River Dolphin; Gadamu Dolphin; Freckled Dolphin; Black Dolphin Genus Delphinus Skull of Baleen Whale Genus Balaena Rorqual 271 _Halicore dugong_ 272 Skull of _Pteromys_ (Flying Squirrel) Genus Sciurus _Sciurus maximus_ 274 _Pteromys oral_ 297 Dentition of _Gerbillus_ Genus Gerbillus Dentition of _Cricetus_ Genus Cricetus _Cricetus_ Genus Cricetus Dentition of Black Rat 332 " of _Arvicola_ Arvicolinae _Rhizomys badius_ 396 Dentition of Jerboa Family Dipodidae _Dipus_ Genus Dipus Skull of Porcupine Family Hystricidae _Hystrix leucura_ 403 Dentition of Hare Sub-order Duplicidentata Side view of Grinders of Asiatic Elephant Genus Elephas Grinder of Asiatic Elephant Genus Elephas " of African Elephant Genus Elephas Section of Elephant's Skull Genus Elephas Skeleton of Elephant Genus Elephas Muscles of Elephant's Trunk Genus Elephas Dentition of Horse Family Equidae _Equus onager_ 426 Dentition of Tapir Family Tapiridae _Tapirus Malayanus_ 428 Dentition of Rhinoceros Genus Rhinoceros _Rhinoceros Indicus_ 429 " _Indicus_ 429 " _Sondaicus_ 430 " _lasiotis_ (_R. Indicus_ and _R. Sondaicus_ in the distance) 431 Bones of a Pig's foot Sub-order Artiodactyla Dentition of Wild Boar Family Suidae _Sus Indicus_ 434 _Porcula Salvania_ 437 _Ovis Polii_ 438 Horns of _Ovis Polii_ 438 _Ovis Hodgsoni_ 439 Skull of _Ovis Hodgsoni_ 439 Horns of _Ovis Karelini_ 440 _Ovis Brookei_ 441 " _cycloceros_ 443 " _nahura_ 445 _Capra megaceros_. No. 1 variety 446 " " No. 2 variety 446 " _Sibirica_ 447 _Hemitragus Jemlaicus_ 449 _Nemorhoedus bubalina_ 451 " _goral_ 454 _Budorcas taxicolor_ 455 _Gazella Bennetti_ (male and female) 456 " _subgutterosa_ 458 Saiga Antelope Genus Pantholops _Pantholops Hodgsoni_ 460 _Antelope bezoartica_ 461 _Portax pictus_ 462 _Tetraceros quadricornis_ 463 _Gavaeus gaurus_ 464 " _frontalis_ 465 _Bubalus arni_ 468 Skull of Musk Deer 468 _Moschus moschiferus_ 469 " _moschiferus_ 469 Stag with Horns matured Cervidae " " " in velvet Cervidae _Cervulus aureus_ 470 _Rusa Aristotelis_ 471 _Axis maculatus_ 472 " _porcinus_ 473 _Cervus Cashmirianus_ 476 _Tragulus napu_ 478 Mouse Deer 479 _Manis pentadactyla_ 480 Dentition of Dormouse (magnified) Appendix A _Myoxus_ Appendix A Osteology of the skull of _Platanista Gangetica_ Appendix B The Slow Loris Appendix C Osteology of the feet of Pig, or African deerlet; Javan deerlet; Roebuck; Sheep; Camel Appendix C Gaur Appendix C

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAMMALIA OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON.

INTRODUCTION.

In laying before the public the following history of the Indian Mammalia, I am actuated by the feeling that a popular work on the subject is needed, and would be appreciated by many who do not care to purchase the expensive books that exist, and who also may be more bothered than enlightened by over-much technical phraseology and those learned anatomical dissertations which are necessary to the scientific zoologist.

Another motive in thus venturing is, that the only complete history of Indian Mammalia is Dr. Jerdon's, which is exhaustive within the boundaries he has assigned to India proper; but as he has excluded Assam, Cachar, Tenasserim, Burmah, Arracan, and Ceylon, his book is incomplete as a Natural History of the Mammals of British India. I shall have to acknowledge much to Jerdon in the following pages, and it is to him I owe much encouragement, whilst we were together in the field during the Indian Mutiny, in the pursuit of the study to which he devoted his life; and the general arrangement of this work will be based on his book, his numbers being preserved, in order that those who possess his 'Mammals of India' may readily refer to the noted species.

But I must also plead indebtedness to many other naturalists who have left their records in the 'Journals of the Asiatic Society' and other publications, or who have brought out books of their own, such as Blyth, Elliott, Hodgson, Sherwill, Sykes, Tickell, Hutton, Kellaart, Emerson Tennent, and others; Col. McMaster's 'Notes on Jerdon,' Dr. Anderson's 'Anatomical and Zoological Researches,' Horsfield's 'Catalogue of the Mammalia in the Museum of the East India Company,' Dr. Dobson's 'Monograph of the Asiatic Chiroptera,' the writings of Professors Martin Duncan, Flowers, Kitchen Parker, Boyd Dawkins, Garrod, Mr. E. R. Alston, Sir Victor Brooke and others; the Proceedings and Journals of the Zoological, Linnean, and Asiatic Societies, and the correspondence in _The Asian_; so that after all my own share is minimised to a few remarks here and there, based on personal experience during a long period of jungle life, and on observation of the habits of animals in their wild state, and also in captivity, having made a large collection of living specimens from time to time.

As regards classification, Cuvier's system is the most popular, so I shall adopt it to a certain extent, keeping it as a basis, but engrafting on it such modifications as have met with the approval of modern naturalists. For comparison I give below a synopsis of Cuvier's arrangement. I have placed Cetacea after Carnivora, and Edentata at the end. In this I have followed recent authors as well as Jerdon, whose running numbers I have preserved as far as possible for purposes of reference.

Cuvier divides the Mammals into nine orders, as follows. (_The examples I give are Indian ones, except where stated otherwise_):--

_Order I_.--BIMANA. Man.

_Order II_.--QUADRUMANA. Two families--1st, Apes and Monkeys; 2nd, Lemurs.

_Order III_.--CARNARIA. Three families--1st, _Cheiroptera_, Bats; 2nd, _Insectivora_, Hedgehogs, Shrews, Moles, Tupaiae, &c.; 3rd, _Carnivora_: Tribe 1, _Plantigrades_, Bears, Ailurus, Badger, Arctonyx; 2, _Digitigrades_, Martens, Weasels, Otters, Cats, Hyaenas, Civets, Musangs, Mongoose, Dogs, Wolves and Foxes.

_Order IV_.--MARSUPIATA. Implacental Mammals peculiar to America and Australia, such as Opossums, Dasyures, Wombats, and Kangaroos. We have none in India.

_Order V_.--RODENTIA. Squirrels, Marmots, Jerboas, Mole-Rats, Rats, Mice, Voles, Porcupines, and Hares.

_Order VI_.--EDENTATA, or toothless Mammals, either partially or totally without teeth. Three families--1st, _Tardigrades_, the Sloths, peculiar to America; 2nd, _Effodientia_, or Burrowers, of which the Indian type is the Manis, but which includes in other parts of the world the Armadillos and Anteaters; 3rd, _Monotremata_, Spiny Anteaters or Echidnas, and the Ornithorynchus.

_Order VII_.--PACHYDERMATA, or thick-skinned Mammals. Three families--1st, _Proboscidians_, Elephants; 2nd, _Ordinary Pachyderms_, Rhinoceroses, Hogs; 3rd, _Solidungula_, Horses.

_Order VIII_.--RUMINANTIA, or cud-chewing Mammals. Four families--1st, _Hornless Ruminants_, Camels, Musks; 2nd, _Cervidae_, true horns shed periodically, Deer; 3rd, _Persistent horns_, Giraffes; 4th, _Hollow-horned Ruminants_, Antelopes, Goats, Sheep and Oxen.

_Order IX._--CETACEA. Three families--1st, _Herbivorous Cetacea_, Manatees, Dugongs; 2nd, _Ordinary Cetacea_, Porpoises; 3rd, _Balaenidae_, Whales.

ORDER BIMANA.

Some people have an extreme repugnance to the idea that man should be treated of in connection with other animals. The development theory is shocking to them, and they would deny that man has anything in common with the brute creation. This is of course mere sentiment; no history of nature would be complete without the noblest work of the Creator. The great gulf that separates the human species from the rest of the animals is the impassable one of intellect. Physically, he should be compared with the other mammals, otherwise we should lose our first standpoint of comparison. There is no degradation in this, nor is it an acceptance of the development theory. To argue that man evolved from the monkey is an ingenious joke which will not bear the test of examination, and the Scriptural account may still be accepted. I firmly believe in man as an original creation just as much as I disbelieve in any development of the Flying Lemur (_Galeopithecus_) from the Bat, or that the habits of an animal would in time materially alter its anatomy, as in the case of the abnormal length of the hind toe and nail of the Jacana. It is not that the habit of running over floating leaves induced the change, but that an all-wise Creator so fashioned it that it might run on those leaves in search of its food. I accept the development theory to the extent of the multiplication of species, or perhaps, more correctly, varieties in genera. We see in the human race how circumstances affect physical appearance. The child of the ploughman or navvy inherits the broad shoulders and thick-set frame of his father; and in India you may see it still more forcibly in the difference between Hindu and Mahomedan races, and those Hindus who have been converted to Mahomedanism. I do not mean isolated converts here and there who intermarry with pure Mahomedan women, but I mean whole communities who have in olden days been forced to accept Islam. In a few generations the face assumes an unmistakable Mahomedan type. It is the difference in living and in thought that effects this change.

It is the same with animals inhabiting mountainous districts as compared with the same living in the plains; constant enforced exercise tells on the former, and induces a more robust and active form.

Whether diet operates in the same degree to effect changes I am inclined to doubt. In man there is no dental or intestinal difference, whether he be as carnivorous as an Esquimaux or as vegetarian as a Hindu; whereas in created carnivorous, insectivorous, and herbivorous animals there is a striking difference, instantly to be recognised even in those of the same family. Therefore, if diet has operated in effecting such changes, why has it not in the human race?

"Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" is a quotation that may aptly be applied to the question of the classification of man; Cuvier, Blumenbach, Fischer, Bory St. Vincent, Prichard, Latham, Morton, Agassiz and others have each a system.

Cuvier recognises only three types--the Caucasian, the Mongolian, and the Negro or Ethiopian, including Blumenbach's fourth and fifth classes, American and Malay in Mongolian. But even Cuvier himself could hardly reconcile the American with the Mongol; he had the high cheek-bone and the scanty beard, it is true, but his eyes and his nose were as Caucasian as could be, and his numerous dialects had no affinity with the type to which he was assigned.

Fischer in his classification divided man into seven races:--

1_st_.--_Homo japeticus_, divided into three varieties--_Caucasicus_, _Arabicus_ and _Indicus_.

2_nd_.--_H. Neptunianus_, consisting of--1st, the Malays peopling the coasts of the islands of the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, &c.; 2nd, New Zealanders and Islanders of the Pacific; and, 3rd, the Papuans.

3_rd_.--_H. Scythicus_. Three divisions, viz.: 1st, Calmucks and other Tartars; 2nd, Chinese and Japanese; and, 3rd, Esquimaux.

4_th_.--_H. Americanus_, and

5_th_.--_H. Columbicus_, belong to the American Continent.

6_th_.--_H. AEthiopicus_. The Negro.

7_th_.--_H. Polynesius_. The _inland_ inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula, of the Islands of the Indian Ocean, of Madagascar, New Guinea, New Holland, &c.

I think this system is the one that most commends itself from its clearness, but there are hardly two writers on ethnology who keep to the same classification.

Agassiz classifies by realms, and has eight divisions.

The Indian races with which we have now to deal are distributed, generally speaking, as follows:--

Caucasian.--(_Homo japeticus_, Bory and Fischer). Northerly, westerly, and in the Valley of the Ganges in particular, but otherwise generally distributed over the most cultivated parts of the Peninsula, comprising the Afghans (Pathans), Sikhs, Brahmins, Rajputs or Kshatryas of the north-west, the Arabs, Parsees, and Mahrattas of the west coast, the Singhalese of the extreme south, the Tamils of the east, and the Bengalis of the north-east.

Mongolians (_H. Scythicus_), inhabiting the chain of mountains to the north, from Little Thibet on the west to Bhotan on the east, and then sweeping downwards southerly to where Tenasserim joins the Malay Peninsula. They comprise the Hill Tribes of the N. Himalayas, the Goorkhas of Nepal, and the Hill Tribes of the north-eastern frontier, viz. Khamtis, Singphos, Mishmis, Abors, Nagas, Jynteas, Khasyas, and Garos. Those of the northern borders: Bhotias, Lepchas, Limbus, Murmis and Haioos; of the Assam Valley Kachari, Mech and Koch.

The Malays (_H. Neptunianus_) Tipperah and Chittagong tribes, the Burmese and Siamese.

Now comes the most difficult group to classify--the aborigines of the interior, and of the hill ranges of Central India, the Kols, Gonds, Bhils, and others which have certain characteristics of the Mongolian, but with skins almost as dark as the Negro, and the full eye of the Caucasian. The main body of these tribes, which I should feel inclined to classify under Fischer's _H. Polynesius_, have been divided by Indian ethnologists into two large groups--the Kolarians and Dravidians. The former comprise the Juangs, Kharrias, Mundas, Bhumij, Ho or Larka Kols, Santals, Birhors, Korwas, Kurs, Kurkus or Muasis, Bhils, Minas, Kulis. The latter contains the Oraons, Malers, Paharis of Rajamahal, Gonds and Kands.

The Cheroos and Kharwars, Parheyas, Kisans, Bhuikers, Boyars, Nagbansis, Kaurs, Mars, Bhunyiars, Bendkars form another great group apart from the Kolarians and Dravidians, and approximating more to the Indian variety of the Japetic class.

Then there are the extremely low types which one has no hesitation in assigning to the lowest form of the Polynesian group, such as the Andamanese, the jungle tree-men of Chittagong, Tipperah, and the vast forests stretching towards Sambhulpur.

On these I would now more particularly dwell as points of comparison with the rest of the animal kingdom. I have taken but a superficial view of the varieties of the higher types of the human race in India, for the subject, if thoroughly entered into, would require a volume of no ordinary dimensions; and those who wish to pursue the study further should read an able paper by Sir George Campbell in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society' for June 1866 (vol. xxxv. Part II.), Colonel Dalton's 'Ethnology of Bengal,' the Rev. S. Hislop's 'Memoranda,' and the 'Report of the Central Provinces Ethnological Committee.' There is as yet, however, very little reliable information regarding the wilder forms of humanity inhabiting dense forests, where, enjoying apparently complete immunity from the deadly malaria that proves fatal to all others, they live a life but a few degrees removed from the Quadrumana.