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Show 224 MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE MAMMALS OF HAINAN. [Apr. 28, mud. The native name is Baramoonda or Buramoondi. We know as yet nothing about its habits, or the metamorphoses the young und'ergo; and I have been informed that the specimen from which the present description is taken is by no means a large one. Mr. Forster tells me that he has heard of specimens taken in the Dawson fully 6 feet in length. 2. On the Mammals of Hainan. B y R. S W I N H O E , F.Z.S. (Plate XVIII.) On the 9th of December, 1869, I had the pleasure of reading before the Society a paper on the Cervine Animals of Hainan. I now desire to give a list of the remaining Mammals that I saw or heard of during m y visit to that island. 1. BLACK APE. Hylobates pileatus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 136, pl. xxi. ? Wooyuen of the Chinese of Hainan. In the Chinese Gazetteer of the Kiungshan district of Hainan I found among the list of Mammal products of the island a species of Gibbon thus described : - " Yuen. Male black, female white ; like a Macaque but larger, with the two forearms exceedingly long. Climbs to tree-tops and runs among them backwards and forwards with great agility. If it falls to the ground, it remains there like a log. Its delight is in scaling trees, as it cannot walk on the ground. Those desiring to rear it in confinement should keep it among trees ; for the exhalations of the earth affect it with diarrhoea, causing death ; a sure remedy for this, however, may be found in a draught made of the syrup of fried Foo-tsze (seeds of Abrus precatorius, Linn.)." An extract from the work Pun Yu Hang che is here inserted, giving the various Yuens known to the author : - " There are three kinds of Yuens-the Golden-Silk Yuen, which is yellow, the Jade-faced Yuen, which is black, and the Jet-black Yuen, which has the face also black. The Golden-Silk and the Jade-face are both difficult to procure." The Gazetteer then continues:-"Hainan has also the Rock-Yuen. It is small, about the bigness of one's fist. If allowed to drink water, it grows in size. This is also called Black Yuen, and is now likewise difficult to obtain." In a later edition of the Gazetteer the following is added :- " From its love for climbing and its mild disposition it is called Yuen" (two meanings of the phonetic part of the character). The work Pe-ya remarks, " The Yuen does not usually walk along the ground;" the Gazetteer therefore observes that it cannot walk ; but those that have lately kept it in confinement have noticed that it occasionally drops on to the ground of its own inclination, and runs backwards and forwards in as lively a manner as the Meshuy \_Loris gracilis (Shaw)]. W e consequently cannot accept the statement in the Gazetteer. |
