-124 PITHECHIR MELANURUS. 



»this perfectly succeeded; for two adult specimens, cf a-^d 

 »9 with a half grown young came down happily unhurt 

 »and were captured. Six days afterwards I came to Toe- 

 »goe and found them living and feeding with fruits of 

 »the earth, especially fruits of the sole like oebi^) and 

 »katèla^). 1 had no opportunity to make out if they too 

 »are insectivorous, and as yet believe — like my hunters 

 »do — that they have a vegetable diet. The young spe- 

 »cimen always uninterrupted was suckling and concealed 

 »its head continually under the abdomen of the mother; 

 »in the same position it did sleep and was carried along 

 »by the mother. In two iron rat-traps I brought them 

 »over to Batavia, where however their appetite diminish- 

 »ed partly by the very high temperature (85° — 90° F.), 

 » partly because I could not procure the small and delicate 

 » granular oebi from Toegoe: the coarse katUa from Bata- 

 »via however they consumed with taste, so kelimoen (cu- 

 » cumbers) too and fruits like pisang^) and manggistan ^)^ 

 »but fresh carrots they did not touch. As a rule they 

 » passed the day sleeping, in the evening they grew rest- 

 »less and in the morning nearly always the food had dis- 

 » appeared , so that the conclusion is permitted that they 

 »are nocturnal animals. 



»The iris is as black as jet; the feet and fingers, as 

 »far as they are thinly haired or not haired at all, are 

 »of a flesh-color like indeed in the existing colored draw- 

 ling: the callosities on the soles of the feet are white 

 »as chalk, the soles however have a somewhat reddish 

 » flesh-color tinge." 



So far the interesting notices made by Mr. Pasteur, by 

 which we now may state that we know more about the 

 biology of this very rare red rat than we ever beared about 

 hundreds other mammals since long represented in every 



1) Genus Bioscorea. 



2) Batatas edulis. 



3) ifMsa-species. 



4) Garcinia mangostana. 



Notes from the Leyden IVLuseum, Vol. XIV. 



