DUTCH BORNEO-EXPEDITION. 27 



236. Adult male. Skin and skeleton. Ketoengau- 

 district. 6. 1894. Moret. 



Iris brown. 



Since my short paper in the »Notes", 1895, p. 17, there 

 have been published a couple of papers concerning the 

 species-question besides a paper on the habitat of the Orang- 

 oetan. The latter is of peculiar interest as it deals with a 

 locality quite new to me and perhaps to other zoologists. 

 It is to be found in the » Journal of the British North 

 Borneo Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Dec. 16, 1895, 

 p. 31," where an unnamed person states: »that he is incli- 

 ned to believe that there are two species of Orang-oetan, 

 a large and a small kind , the number of the small kind 

 he has seen exceeding that of the larger: he does not 

 remember even having seen the small sort anywhere near 

 Sandakan itself (i. e. the town of that name, not the 

 district) while in the Segalind and Kinabatangan districts 

 he has rarely seen the larger kind," Leaving for the mo- 

 ment the question of the large and small species as it is, 

 it seems according to that unknown author that a Mias 

 Oder Maias is living in north eastern Borneo. In the Zoo- 

 logist for the year 1881 we find on page 393 an enume- 

 ration of the animals found in the very locality, viz. : San- 

 dakan , Elopura-bay, by Mr. W. B. Pryer , but surprisingly 

 not a single word concerning the most interesting Orang- 

 oetan. So that there is reason to ask if the unnamed author 

 truly is to trust, before accepting his communication and 

 — if he is not a competent zoologist — before having 

 seen the specimens. 



Another paper in the same Journal, Dec. 1 , 1895, p. 29, 

 written by Mr. M., contains the confession that the author 

 believes that , when such an authority as the late Professor 

 Owen pronounced as a fact that three species (of Orang- 

 oetan) exist or existed, doubts are not so easily disposed 

 of. Further the author copies two articles written some 

 years ago by Mr. E. Blythe. And therefore — no news at all ! 



Of much more interest is a discussion of the species- 

 Notes from the Leyden IMuseum , "Vol. XIX. 



