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Show 882 MR. A. D. BARTLETT ON ANOA DEPRESSICORNIS. [Nov. 19, could not be closely inspected), a Buffalo, small in size, with rather straight horns bent backwards, with not much hair on the skin, which was of a light greyish colour. There was no similarity to the Anoa from Celebes, which I had seen the year before at Menado, as regards colour, skin, size, or horns. " The ' Tamarao' is said to live only on Mindoro. The wild Buffalo of Luzon does not differ much from the tame one. The name for Buffalo in the Tagaloe language of Luzon is Anooang, the same as for Anoa depressicornis in South Celebes. (In the Pampanga language of Luzon, 'Damulag' means buffalo. For a wild Buffalo they say on Luzon ' Karabao cimarron,' ' cimarron ' being a Spanish expression for wild.) " When back in Europe in the same year, I looked together with the late Dr. Gray through the galleries of the British Museum for this ' Tamarao,' but in vain ; we could not find it. " In the gallery of the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, I saw this autumn a skeleton of a small Buffalo from Timor, brought home by the ' Astrolabe,' and labelled Bubalus seligniceros, which reminded me of the ' Tamarao ' of Mindoro, as I mentioned to Prof. Gervais, who kindly accompanied me, telling him also of its supposed affinity to the Anoa. "Of course I cannot depend on the alleged identity of the stuffed Buffalo in the Museum of the Dominicans in Manilla with the ' Tamarao' of Mindoro; and, also, m y inspection of this specimen was scientifically not sufficient; but I hope to be able to throw some light on this question very soon, as a skull of the real ' Tamarao' from Mindoro will be in m y hands in a few days, as I bought some time ago for the Dresden Museum Professor Semper's Mammalian collection from the Philippines, which contains such a skull. I therefore shall soon recur to the subject. " I take this occasion to remark that there exists on the island of Balabac, Philippines, a species of Tragulus, specimens of which I have seen living at the Government House in Cebii; but, having no books with me, I could not make out whether it differs from Tragulus kanchil or not. " Yours very sincerely, "A. B. MEYER." " Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's Park, London, N.W. November 18, 1878. " D E A R SIR,-About thirty years since, a collector of natural-history specimens, named Napper, wrote to m e from the Philippines to say that there existed on the island of Mindanao or Mindoro, a small kind of Buffalo extremely wild and difficult to obtain. I engaged him to obtain specimens; and after much trouble and expense he sent me an adult bull, a cow, and calf that he had shot and skinned. They were offered by me to Dr. Gray for the British Museum, who declined them, as he was of opinion they were only small varieties of the common Manilla or Water-Buffalo; and this was m y own opinion, and that also of every one who saw them. I |
