THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



SUPPLEMENT TO VOL. XV. JULY 1845. 



LXIII. — Notices of various Mammalia, with Descriptions of many 

 new Species. By Edward Blyth, Esq., Curator of the Asiatic 

 Society's Museum, &c.* 



Part I.— The PRIMATES, Linn. 



Simiada. — When last I had occasion to treat of this group, I 

 remarked (Journ. As. Soc. xii. 176), that at that time the only 

 ascertained species known to inhabit the countries bordering on 

 the Bay of Bengal to the eastward were the Hylohates Lar, which 

 I suggested to be the most common species of gibbon found in 

 the interior of the Tenasserim provinces, as alluded to by Dr. 

 Heifer ; and H. syndactylus, which according to that author ex- 

 tends as high as 15° N. lat., a statement which however it would 

 be satisfactory to have confirmed. It now appears that the 

 H. Lar is diffused so high as Arracan, where Captain Abbott, 

 assistant to the commissioner of the province, and who is sta- 

 tioned in Bamree, is acquainted both with it and H. Hoolock as 

 inhabitants of that island (?) . In Arracan however the Hoolock 

 is the prevalent species of gibbon, and extends thence over all 

 the hill-ranges of Sylhet and Assam f; while the Lar, or white- 

 handed species, is found southward to the Straits. The Society 

 has lately received a pale specimen of the Hoolock from Captain 

 Phayre (senior assistant to the commissioner of Arracan, and 

 stationed at Sandoway), which closely approaches to that in the 

 Zoological Society's museum, which was described as a distinct 

 species by the name H. choromandus, being however a trifle 

 darker, and considerably darker than the very pale example from 

 Assam noticed in 'Journ. As. Soc' x. 839. Another Hoolock 

 in this museum is again much darker than the Arracan specimen, 

 and we have retained a third of the usual intense black colour all 

 over, with the exception of the constant white band across the 

 forehead. 



According to Mr. J. Owen, who resided upwards of two years 

 among the savage Nagas and Abors who inhabit the wooded 

 mountain-ranges to the eastward of Upper Assam, the Hoolock 



* From the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. QQ, New Series, 

 for 1844. 



\ It is even found in some parts of Mymunseng. Buchanan Hamilton's 

 MSS., upon the authority of Mr. Dick, formerly judge and magistrate ot 

 Sylhet. 



Ann. ^ May. N. Hist, Vol xv. Suppl 2 I 



