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Show 1902.] THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. 137 March 4, 1902. W. BATESON, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of February 1902 :- The registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of February 1902 were 73 in number. Of these 24 were acquired by presentation and 49 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 154. " Amongst the additions attention may be specially directed to :- (1) A young male Snow-Leopard (Felis undo), from Ladakh, presented by Capt. H . I. Nicholl, of the 1st Bedfordshire Regiment, Mooltan. W e are much indebted to Capt. Nicholl for the care and trouble which he has taken in sending us home this rare and beautiful animal, of which so few specimens have ever reached us, and to Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, & Co. for its passage home in the s.s. ' Prome.' It was originally obtained by Capt. Nicholl in Ladakh about September 1901J. (2) A pair of Prjevalsky's Wild Horses (Equus prjevalskii), being part of the same convoy as those lately acquired by His Grace The Duke of Bedford, our President, as was recently announced (see P. Z. S. 1901, vol. ii. p. 505). Mr. Hagenbeck has supplied m e with the following information respecting the capture of these animals :-- The Wild Horses were captured in three different districts in the vicinity of Kobdo in Western Mongolia (in about 38° N. and 90° 35' E.), in the Chinese Empire, as shown on the map which I now send. From Kobdo the horses were taken to the Siberian Railway Station, Ob. They were thirty-nine days on the way, including four days of travel by barges on the River Ob. The Prjevalsky's Horses drop their young ones from the latter days of April to about the 20th of May, and during this time they come to particular spots, which are marked on the map, and they find at these places plenty of food and water. The system of catching them is the following:-Large troops of Mongols hunt in combination, waiting for the animals behind the hills, and when they observe that a great many are together they all, on a signal, suddenly start and ride after the animals. As the young ones cannot follow their mothers, they are caught with nooses that are arranged on long sticks. The captives are brought to the camp, where the Mongols keep a lot of common mares with their young ones. These young ones are then taken away, and the wild colts put to the common Mongol horses to be nursed by them. After a few days the young ones become i ggg < The Field' of 1902 (vol. xcix. p. 325) for an account of the capture of this animal. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1902, VOL. I. No. X. 10 |
