300 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



months. He has been taught to make sounds, but can not 

 yet speak. He has learned to eat cooked meat, but still does 

 not disdain to pick a bone. 



These boys were remarkable for the facility with which 

 they moved about on their hands and feet, exactly as if they 

 were real wolves. Before eating or tasting any food, they 

 tsmelled it, and if the smell did not suit them they threw it 

 away. Proc. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, June, 1873, 128. 



HABITS OF A YOUNG GORILLA. 



Mr.R. B.Walker writes fromCoriscoBay,in Western Africa, 

 in regard to a young gorilla which he had alive for some time, 

 and hoped to forward to the Zoological Society of London. 

 Contrary to the usual assumption in regard to this species, 

 the specimen in question proved to be extremely docile and 

 perfectly tame. When first purchased it was shy and sus- 

 picious, but not spiteful. At the expiration of about a week 

 it was led around without resistance, and it ate whatever eat- 

 able thing it could lay its hands on, including a basin of con- 

 densed milk with a raw egg beaten up in it. It was quite 

 tame, eating, sleeping, and playing with a large bull-terrier, 

 the two animals being constantly together. It unfortunate- 

 ly disappeared one night, and was supposed to have fallen 

 overboard. 11 A, November 4, 1873, 684. 



PAUCITY OF MAMMALS IN CUBA. 



The great paucity in species of native mammals in the isl- 

 and of Cuba, and the West Indies generally, is a remarkable 

 fact, a recent catalogue by the well-known Cuban naturalist, 

 Dr. Gundlach, giving but twenty-four species, of which nine- 

 teen consist of various species of bats. One is a Solenodon, 

 belonging to the insectivora ; three are species of Capromys, 

 a form of hystricine rodents, allied to the agoutis ; and one 

 the manatee. All the species, with the exception of the mana- 

 tee (which really belongs to the waters and not to the land), 

 are extremely diminutive. Nor is there any reason to sup- 

 pose that at the time of the discovery by the Spaniards there 

 were more kinds or of larger size. It is probable, however, 

 that at one geological period the West Indies were connected 

 with the continent, or formed a large area; and certain pale- 

 ontolo<jfical indications show that at one time the fauna was 



