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Show 820 MR. SCLATER ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. [Nov. 14, this Mr. Stephen at once agreed, and a codfish was procured from the neighbourhood, and by me cut into long thin strips. On offering these pieces of cod to the animal, he greedily devoured them. Since that time I have fed the Walrus upon fish, mussels, whelks, clams, and the stomachs and intestines and other soft parts of fishes, cut small; for I find that it cannot swallow anything larger than a walnut. I am now convinced that the food of the Walrus is strictly animal substance ; and from what I have observed during the last seventeen days I feel certain that the creature will feed freely upon almost any kind of animal matter." " I am also inclined to believe that even carrion or decomposed flesh would not be refused. This probably has led to the frequent remarks upon the disgusting state of the contents of their stomachs. May not these creatures be the scavengers of the Arctic Seas, the vultures among mammals ? The remarkable dentition reminds one of the carrion-feeding Proteles. May not the strong bristles on its muzzle have much to do with this kind of food as well as shrimp-catching, the mode of brushing backwards and forwards with these bristles the food and other substances on the ground, and sucking everything up it swallows?" " I notice that indigestible portions or substances taken with its food pass off in the excretion; and probably in the adult animal, when shell, seaweed, and other substances are collected, these creatures, like other carnivorous animals, have the power of ejecting these indigestible bodies from the stomach." " The fragments of shell, small stones, the byssus of tbe mussels, and the opercula of whelks, together with fragments of seaweed attached to the byssus of the mussels, pass freely from this animal. The terminal portion of the intestines must be of large size, judging by the size of the excretion." Mr. Sclater also reported the return to this country on the 6th of August last, by the ship ' Marian Moore' from Calcutta, of Mr. Clarence Bartlett, the Society's agent, with a collection of animals, of which the most noticeable were :- 2 Black Tibetan Wolves (Canis laniger, Hodgs.). Presented to the Society by Lieut. Alexander A. Kinloch, 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade, and Lieut. J. Biddulph, 19th Hussars*. 1 Female Gayal (Bos frontalis, Lambert). Presented by the Babu Rajendra Mullick, C.M.Z.S. 2 Pelicans (Pelecanus, sp. inc.). Presented by the Babu Rajendra Mullick, C.M.Z.S. 4 Demoiselle Cranes (Grus virgo). Presented by the Babu Rajendra Mullick, C.M.Z.S. 2 Polyplectrons, $ (Polypledron chinquis). Presented by the Babu Rajendra Mullick, C.M.Z.S. 1 White Fruit-Pigeon (Carpophaga luctuosa). Presented by the Babu Rajendra Mullick, C.M.Z.S. ' * These Wolves were obtained in the beginning of June 1866, by Lieut. Kinloch, from some wandering Tartars near the Tshommeriri Lake in Tibet. |
