OCR Text |
Show 366 MR. STANLEY S. FLOWER ON THE [Apr. 3, Jan. 1894, p. 17) says: " The elephant appears to be common throughout Johore. Tracks were seen in many places on the Indau, and also on the Sembrong, near P'ngkalan Repoh especially." Ridley (J.S.B.R.A.S. no. 25, Jan. 1894, p. 59) says: "The elephant, though common all through Pahang, is never caught and tamed. Abundant in the Tahan woods ; " and (Nat. Science, vol. vi. 1895, p. 162) remarks that "it is not excessively abundant, but is plentiful in mauy parts of the Peninsula." Distribution. India, Burma, Siam, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. Order UNGULATA. Family RHINOCEROTID/E. Malay name for Rhinoceros, "Badak" (the final "k" not pronounced in most parts of the Peninsula). Siamese name for Rhinoceros, " Rat." A good deal of uncertainty exists as to how many species of Rhinoceros inhabit this region, and which they are, and it is difficult to obtain information ; they are poorly represented in tbe local Museums-partly because almost all parts of the rhinoceros are highly prized by various natives of Asia : and I have been told that it is more profitable for a Malay, if he happens to catch one of these animals in a pitfall, to kill it and sell the remains to the Chinese, than to sell the wiiole animal to a European. The only specimens of Rhinoceros in the Perak Museum (May 1898) were three hornless skulls without localities labelled R. lasi-otis, R. sumatrensis, and R. sondaicus respectively. Iu the Selangor Museum (July 1898) there was a single unlabelled skull. The Ratiies Museum (1 898) had only a skeleton, labelled R. sumatrensis without locality. In the Siamese Museum we had a splendid series of over sixty separate, detached horns of Rhinoceros, some of remarkable shapes, but unfortunately their localities are not known. In February 1897 we acquired a specimen of R. sondaicus, which we skinned aud stuffed. As an instance of how rhinoceros products are valued, I may mention that to skin this animal we had any number of eager volunteers, mostly Siamese women, who in return for the work of removing the skin only wanted to have some of the blood. The rhinoceros was skinned in an old Palace Garden in Bangkok under m y directions ; it was an extraordinary sight as we hurried to get it done before dark-a crowd of women, mostly clad only in a "panting" (Siamese loin-cloth), smeared with blood from head to foot, working away at the carcass with knives and fingers, little children collecting the blood in cocoanut-shells and running off with it to their homes, and Siamese men hanging round trying to get any of the flesh they could; it was very difficult to save the skeleton, several of the bones being snatched up and nearly carried off by these loafers. Cantor (p. 54) says that Rhinoceros unicornis and R. sondaicus " appear to be numerous on the Malayan Peninsula;" and adds |