702 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV- 



In Cachar, where these notes were written, the tea-planters often keep 

 Hoolocks for years, allowing them to run loose about the compound, and they 

 are certainly the cleanest and most interesting pets imaginable, offering a very 

 marked contrast in this respect to the red monkeys, which, chained to a pole 

 are so common a feature in Indian compounds. 



A Hoolock, to be tamed in this way, must be caught quite young, and not tied, 

 or shut up in any way. A native boy is generally told off to watch him for a 

 few days, and to prevent him from bolting, but he soon learns to come down 

 from the trees for a plantain, and he will inmost cases settle down to a solitary 

 life, remaining about the same compound for years. But chain him or restrain 

 his liberty in any way, and he inevitably begins to mope and pine, and invari- 

 ably dies in a few weeks. It is strange that the calls of the wild Hoolock, 

 which he must hear almost daily all round him, do not tempt him to revert to 

 his natural life as a member of a wandering community. I imagine a Hoolock, 

 who attempted to join a strange band, would meet with a rough reception, 

 any way they never try to return to the jungle after they become tame. 



Several such tame Hoolocks I have had the opportunity of observing for 

 some months past. Often they will be away up in the tree-tops for days 

 together, when nothing will tempt them down, but when one chooses to be 

 sociable he will come and sit on the arm of your chair at breakfast, and never 

 reach or snatch things off the table : in fact, his manners are unexceptionable, 

 and he keeps his skin beautifully clean without that exaggerated parade of flea- 

 hunting which makes the monkey tribe so objectionable as pets. At sunset you 

 may see him settle down to sleep, jammed tight in a fork in a squatting position. 

 In this semi-domesticated state I notice that the Hoolock seldom uses his voice. 

 I suppose, leading a solitary bachelor life, he finds no necessity for chattering 

 or calling. With regard to the diet of the Hoolock, Dr. Blanford, the Indian 

 naturalist, gives a long list, including fruit, leaves, young shoots, spiders, insects, 

 birds' eggs and young birds. But, it seems to me, the diet of such shy creatures 

 must be largely a matter of conjecture, for no certain conclusions can be drawn 

 from the habits of captured specimens, nor can we recognize, as a rule, subscances 

 in the stomach of shot specimens, as we can in the crop in the case of birds. 

 My own observations lead me to believe that fruits and the succulent shoots of 

 young bamboos and other trees form the bulk of their diet. They will certainly 

 catch and eat certain spiders ; but I have invariably found them to refuse such 

 insects as moths or butterflies, perhaps because many such insects have a bitter 

 taste. Eggs, too, I found they would not eat. If you give an insect or a small 

 bird to a Hoolock he will certainly pull it to pieces, and possibly taste or bite it, 

 but it by no means follows that it is one of the regular dishes he enjoys in his 

 wild life. 



The following list of leaves and shoots which are eaten by the Hoo!ock is 

 given by Anderson : — Morugo pterygosperma, Spondias mangif&ra, Ficus religiosa, 

 Beta vulgaris, Ipompcea reptana, Carina indica. 



I hope later on to supplement these short notes with some anatomical obser- 

 vations on weight of brain relative to body, and on the number ar.d de.th of 



