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Show 526 THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. [Nov. 12, November 12, 1868. Professor Alfred Newton, F.Z.S., in the Chair. Mr. P. L. Sclater read notices of the more important additions made to the Society's Menagerie during the months of June, July, August, September, and October, amongst which were:- 1. A pair of the beautiful Green Hunting-Crow of Northern India (Cissa venatoria), purchased June 2nd, and believed to be the first two examples of this form received alive in Europe. 2. An Australian Fruit-Bat (Pteropus poliocephalus, Temminck), from New South Wales, presented by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, July 4th. 3. A young male Koodoo Antelope (Strepsiceros kudu), purchased July 16th out of a large collection of living animals made by M. Casanova in the vicinity of Casala, Lower Nubia. 4. A young female of the Spanish Ibex (Capra pyrenaica, Schimper), presented by Major Howard Irby, August 10th, being the specimen alluded to antea, p. 403. Another correspondent of the Society had promised to supply a male of this interesting species. 5. A very fine young female of the Hoolock Gibbon (Hylobates hoolock), presented by Mr. A. Grote, F.Z.S., August 14th, who had communicated the following note respecting this animal:- "This Hoolock was sent to me early in 1867, by Mrs. Driver, of Gowalpara, a civil station on the western border of the Assam province. The animal is common in the jungles of tbe Gowalpara district, on the left bank of the Barhampooter; and its young are frequently captured by the natives and brought into the station, though, being impatient of confinement, they are not usually, so far as I can learn, kept alive for any time. Those which are sent down to Calcutta seem very sensitive to the change of climate, and are generally carried off by pulmonary disease. The individual which I brought home was attacked within a week of her reaching me at Alipore, and would probably have succumbed but for the unremitting attention of Dr. John Anderson, the Society's agent in Calcutta, to whom I had made her over. She was for more than a year in the Botanic Gardens, and, being allowed a good deal of liberty there, kept her health very well. She has grown considerably since she was first sent down to me. " Both this species and the Hylobates lar of Tenasserim are exceedingly gentle, and rarely, if ever, bite in anger. There is a good account of an individual of the latter species by Mr. H. Blanford in a recent number of the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.' It differs in external appearance from the Gibbon in having a whitish-grey fringe round the face, and is incapable of shouting. The Hoolock owes its native name to its loud and peculiar voice." 6. A specimen of the Large White Crane of Upper India (Grus leucogeranos), presented by the Babu Rajendra Mullick, of Calcutta, C.M.Z.S., August 14th. |
