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Show 1894.] HABITS OP ANOMALURUS. 245 going down to 44° on the ground. Of course in the dry season it is much hotter, but the natives say these animals are much more plentiful in the rains and that the rainier the season the more they see. They htter twice a year, once about September, the young remaining in the nest for about nine weeks, during which they are fed by the old ones on shoots, kernels, & c , and do not attempt to jump before the end of that period, extending the length of their jumps with their growth. I do not know the other time of breeding or whether they have a regular season. The hunters told m e that 2 or 3 were usually born at one birth, never more than 4, and that there are several varieties, different in colour and size-some being black, some brown, some red, &c.; the specimens I obtained, some of which are now in the Natural History Museum, being the most plentiful. A native's description is always very vague, and the interpretation is another great difficulty; but I feel sure, both from what I saw and what I beard, that there must be several different sorts. I managed before I left Aburi to get some dozen skins-all of the same kind-and instructed two native hunters to collect as many skins as they could for me, as I was much pleased with the fine fur and thought they would make a very good coat. I gave the men each a " book" or note promising to buy as many skins as they could collect at Is. each. I left Aburi in June and returned across the plain to Accra. About a month afterwards one of m y hunters arrived from Aburi with 60 skins and his " book." I was rather surprised, but bought them. A few days after the other man arrived with 140 skins and his book, which be sternly insisted on my redeeming. I had not quite expected this, but chose 50 of the best, and at last got rid of the man, though not without much murmuring. However, having got an extra " dash," he was quite satisfied at last. He must have done very well, as from the look of the skins he must have collected them from all quarters, some being very old. This man had several different ones, i. e. apparently so ; but I regret to say, with the exception of one small brown one, which is here to-night, and which was thrown in as a " dash," and one reddish-orange one which I bought by mistake, and which is now at South Kensington, I did not secure them. Some had a broad orange stripe down the back, some a large spot of orange on the back, and the brown skin was, I distinctly remember, similar to a small brown skin shown m e by Mr. Old field Thomas, and which I believe was brought from Gaboon1. These curious ones I did not buy, as my fur coat was prominent in m y mind. The shower, however, was not yet over, as in a few days one of m y bailiffs turned up with 25 skins, and an old chief named Addo, from w h o m I used to buy curios, having once got it into his head that flying-foxes were the thing, turned up at almost daily intervals with half a dozen or so fresh skins, till I got sick of the very name of a flying-fox. 1 A.fraseri. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1894, No. XVII. 17 |