The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma/Mammalia/Introduction
INTRODUCTION.
The present is the first part of a general work, compiled for the Government, and published under its authority, on the Fauna of British India and its dependencies. A few details respecting this larger work may serve as a preface to the introductory observations on the Mammalia.
The large additions made to our knowledge of Indian Zoology during the period, now about a quarter of a century, that has elapsed since the appearance of Jerdon's 'Birds' and 'Mammals' and Günther's 'Reptiles' have for some time rendered it desirable that a new series of descriptive manuals should be prepared. The Secretary of State for India in Council, upon the recommendation of the Government of India, gave his sanction, in 1883, to a plan for the preparation of the works most urgently required, and entrusted the editorship of the series to the present writer. From various causes the appearance of the work has been delayed, but it is hoped that the principal difficulties have now been overcome.
For the present, it is proposed to restrict the publication to the Vertebrata, and to complete the work in seven volumes of about 500 pages each. One of these volumes will contain the Mammals (the present issue is only a half-volume), three will be required for the Birds, one for Reptiles and Batrachians, and two for Fishes.
The authorship of the volumes on Fishes has been undertaken by Mr. F. Day, C.I.E., Deputy Surgeon-General, author of the 'Fishes of India'; the Reptilia and Batrachia will be described by Mr. G. A. Boulenger, author of the recently publislied British-Museum Catalogues of Batrachia and Lizards; whilst the Birds will, it is hoped, be taken in hand by Mr. E. W. Oates, author of the 'Birds of British Burmah.' The Mammals remain to be described by the Editor. The greater part of the second half-volume on Mammalia is written, and much progress has been made with all other parts of the work, so that there is every prospect of the whole being issued in the course of the next few years.
The limits adopted for the fauna are those of the dependencies of India, with the addition of Ceylon, which, although British, is not under the Indian Government. Within the limits thus defined are comprised all India proper and the Himalayas, the Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, all the Kashmir territories, with Gilgit, Ladák, &c., Nepal, Sikhim, Bhutan, and other Cis-Himalayan States, Assam, the countries between Assam and Burma, such as the Khási and Naga hills and Manipur, the whole of Burma, with Karennee and, of course, Tenasserim and the Mergui Archipelago, and, lastly, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Afghanistan, Kashgaria, Tibet, Yunnan, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula south of Tenasserim are excluded. A few States, such as Nepal and Bhutan, at present not accessible to Europeans, are comprised, because it would be difficult to leave them out; scarcely an animal occurs in either not found also in British territories or in protected States, such as Sikhim.
The whole of India and its dependencies, with the exception of the higher Himalayas and Trans-Himalayan tracts, is included in the Oriental Region, one of the six great zoological regions[1] into which the terrestrial surface of the globe was divided by Sclater, whose views have been adopted by Wallace and others. Several Ethiopian and Palæarctic genera are intermixed with forms characteristic of the Oriental Region in North-western India, and some of these forms range throughout the Peninsula, but not further to the eastward.
The division of the area into zoological subregions is somewhat difficult, the affinities of the different subdivisions being complicated. The following subregions may be accepted as convenient and as approximately correct:—
I. Tibetan. The Upper Indus valley (Gilgit, Ladák, &c.) and the higher Himalaya above 12,000 or 14,000 feet.
II. Himalayan. The southern slopes of the Himalaya, from the base to about the limit of trees.
III. Indian. India from the base of the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, with the exception of the Malabar coast, but with the addition of Northern Ceylon.
IV. Malabar or Ceylonese. The Malabar coast and the neighbouring hills as far north as the Tapti river, together with Southern Ceylon.
V. Burmese. All Burma except South Tenasserim, and with the addition of Assam and the intervening countries.
VI. South Tenasserim. This is the northern extremity of the great Indo-Malayan subregion, comprising the Malay Peninsula and several of the islands.
Some of these may require further subdivision. Thus the fauna of the North-west Provinces and Punjab differs considerably from that of Southern India, and both areas exhibit zoological distinctions from the forest-clad tracts of South-western Bengal. There is also much difference between the animals of Pegu and Arakan, on the one hand, and those of the drier regions of Upper Burma on the other; and even greater distinctions may be traced between those found in the subtropical and those inhabiting the temperate regions of the Himalaya. On the other hand, the subtropical Himalayas were united with the Burmese subregion by Wallace, and the two are, perhaps, zoologically more allied to each other than to any other subregion.
It is well to notice that the Tibetan subregion is Palæarctic, whilst the other five subdivisions are included in the Oriental Region.
The preceding remarks apply to the 'Fauna of British India' in general; the following relate to the present volume. The classification of Mammals here adopted vas proposed by Professor Flower in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1883, pp. 178–186. The arrangement is but slightly modified from that employed by the same author in the last (ninth) edition of the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' (Article "Mammalia"). Although this classification is, so far as I am able to judge, the best hitherto published, there are, as will be mentioned in the proper places, several questions on which wide differences of opinion exist. Thus many excellent naturalists regard as of ordinal rank subdivisions such as, for instance, the Lemuroidea and Proboscidea, classed by Professor Flower as suborders.
The descriptions of the genera and species in the following pages have been taken from specimens, whenever any were accessible: in the few cases in which, for want of available specimens, the characters are copied from descriptions by previous writers, the fact is stated. The measurements are taken from various sources, and, whenever possible, dimensions of freshly-killed animals, or, in the case of the smaller forms, of perfect examples preserved in spirit, have been selected. The length of the head and body from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail and the length of the tail are naturally of little value when taken from skins; these two dimensions are given, when possible, in the following pages, the tail measurement being without the hair, if data are available. Other measurements often cited are those of the ear, usually from the crown of the head, sometimes from the external base or from the oinfice, and of the pes or hind foot, including the tarsus, from the joint corresponding to the heel in man and the hock in a horse to the end of the longest toe, the claws not being included, unless their inclusion is specified. In particular cases other dimensions are added, for instance the forearm in bats.
Two measurements of the skull are generally given:—the basal length, from the anterior or lower margin of the foramen magnum to the anterior border of the premaxillaries, the incisor teeth not being included; and the zygomatic breadth, across the widest part of the zygomatic arches. The extreme length of the skull sometimes recorded is either from the posterior surface or from the supraoccipital to the end of the premaxillaries, or, in some skulls, to the end of the nasals.
The notes on distribution and habits are compiled from various writers, especially from the works of Jerdon, Blyth, Hodgson (inclusive of the MS. notes on his drawings in the Zoological Society's library), Elliot, Kelaart, Tickell (also including his MS. notes), Sterndale, McMaster, Forsyth, Sanderson, and others, supplemented by my own observations during a residence of more than 20 years in India, in the course of which time, whilst employed in the Geological Survey of the country, I visited many parts of India and Burma, and became acquainted with most of the wild animals in their native haunts.
_-_Skeleton_of_a_Lioness.png)
Skeleton of a Lioness. (From Guide to the Galleries of Mammalia, British Museum.)
_-_Upper_and_under_surface_of_a_Dog%27s_cranium.png)
Upper and under surface of a Dog's cranium. (Flower's 'Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia,' figs 46, 47.
ap, apf, anterior palatine foramen; AS, alisphenoid; as, posterior opening of alisphenoid canal; BO, basioccipital; BS, basisphenoid; cf, condylar foramen; eam, external auditory meatus; ExO, exoccipital; flm, foramen lacerum medium; flp, foramen lacerum posterius; fm, foramen magnum; fo, foramen ovale; Fr, frontal; fr, foramen rotundum and anterior opening of alisphenoid canal; gf, glenoid fossa; gp, postglenoid process; io, infraorbital foramen; IP, interparietal; L, lachrymal; M, malar or jugal; Mx, maxilla; Na, nasal; oc, occipital condyle; op, optie foramen; Pa, parietal; Per, mastoid portion of perotie; pgf, postglenoid foramen; Pl, palatine; PMx, premaxilla; pof, postorbital process of frontal lobe; pp, paroccipital process; ppf, posterior palatine foramen; PS, presphenoid; Pt, pterygoid occipital; Sq, squamosal and its zygomatic process; Ty, tympanic or auditory hull; Vo, vomer. The synonymy has been thoroughly revised, the original descriptions having been consulted in every case. A list of the principal works quoted, with their abbreviated titles, is appended. The British-Museum catalogues by Dr. Gray are referred to as seldom as possible, because of their inaccuracy. A considerable proportion of the mistakes made by Indian naturalists, in nomenclature especially, may be traced to these catalogues.
Space does not permit the addition of a sketch of mammalian anatomy. The accompanying woodcuts of a lion's skeleton and of a dog's skull will suffice to show the names and position of the principal bones. For further details with regard to the skeleton the student will do well to consult Flower's 'Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia,' from which, by permission of the author and publishers, the woodcuts of a dog's skull are taken. For the anatomy of the soft parts no similar compendium exists; a sketch will be found in the article "Mammalia" in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' but a general work on mammalian anatomy is still wanted. The teeth have been treated in separate works by Owen, Giebel, and others. Here it is only necessary to say that they are divided into incisors, canines, premolars, and molars; that the three first-named are, as a rule, preceded in the young mammal by milk or deciduous teeth; that the upper canine is the tooth behind the premaxillary suture or in contact with it, and the lower canine the tooth that, when the jaws are closed, comes immediately in front of the upper canine; the teeth in front of the canines are incisors, those behind premolars and molars.
It will be difficult within the limited space available for me to acknowledge the assistance of all who have aided me in preparing the present work. I am indebted particuirly to General R. Strachey and Col. Yule, and equally so to Professor Flower and Dr. Günther for aid most liberally given on all occasions, also to Mr. P. L. Sclater, Dr. J. Anderson, Sir J. Fayrer, Prof. A. Newton, Mr. A. Hume, Prof. Mivart, Mr. J. Scully, Sir O. B. St. John, Col. J. Biddulph, Mr. Davison, Captain Bingham, Mr. W. Daly, Rev. S. Fairbank, Mr. Wood Mason, Mr. W. L. Sclater, Mr. H. E. Watson, the late Mr. L. Mandelli, and Mr. J. Murray, for assistance of various kinds. Above all I am under obligations to Mr. G. E. Dobson and Mr. Oldfield Thomas, not merely for the great extent to which this work has been facilitated by their writings, but also for advice and information of many kinds and on numerous occasions. But for Mr. Dobson's researches amongst the Chiroptera and Insectivora, the labour of preparing a work on Indian Mammalia would have been greater bv at least one third.
I have also to acknowledge with gratitude the permission liberally granted to me by the Trustees of the British Museum, the Zoological Society, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and Messrs. Black and Co., of Edinburgh, to publish copies of woodcuts laken from their publications. The work from which the cut is taken is quoted in each case. Several of the illustrations are, by permission of the Zoological Society, taken from drawings by the late Col. Tickell, and from the superb collection made by Mr. B. H. Hodgson, both of which series are now in the Society's Library. The majority of the cuts are copied, from drawings by Mr. R. E. Holding and Mr. P. J. Smit, by the Typographic Etching Company's process.
- ↑ These six zoological regions are the following:—
I. Palæarctic: Europe, Africa north of the Sahara, and Asia north of the Himalayas.
II. Ethiopian: Africa south of the Sahara.
III. Oriental: India and South-eastern Asia, with the Malay Archipelago, as far east as Java, Bali, Borneo, and the Philippines.
IV. Australian: Australia, Celebes, New Guinea, New Zealand, and the islands of the Pacific.
V. Nearctic: America north of the Tropic of Cancer.
VI. Neotropical: Central and South America.
For further particulars, see Wallace's 'Geographical Distribution of Animals.'