NOTES. 155 



NOTES. 



1. On tlie Loris in captivity. — With any wild animal in capti- 

 vity the first and most important thing to find out is what 

 food is most likely to suit its taste. And with a very small 

 nocturnal beast, such as the Loris, concerning whose habits I 

 imagine that but little is laiown, this is not at first easy. A 

 list of what I have found Loris eat and thrive on, and of what I 

 have known him eat and not thrive on, may therefore be of 

 interest. 



First of all, I am convinced that the Loris is by nature purely 

 insectivorous, and even carnivorous. If not fed for a day or so he 

 will eat plantains, pumpkins, boiled rice, &c., so will a hungry 

 leopard eat rice, or a starving man his boots, but not with any 

 marked gusto. 



What a Loris really enjoys is a heavy meal of grasshoppers ; 

 all varieties seem to be equally appreciated, from the large brown 

 red-underwinged piece de resistance to the thin pale green 

 " salad." I have known a Loris eat 60 mixed grasshoppers at a 

 sitting. Crickets, moths, ordinary flies, most beetles, and cock- 

 roaches are all accepted eagerly ; while the rather horrid skill 

 with which a loris seizes and manipulates a strongly struggling 

 gecko seems to suggest that this is a not unfamiliar prey. 



Worms, brightly-coloured butterflies, certain evil-coloured 

 beetles, and meat, such as chicken, beef, &c., are rejected, some- 

 times rather indignantly, and I have known the brown shell- 

 backed variety of cockroach (I do not know its name) make a 

 Loris very sick. 



About a teaspoonful of water a day seems to be the correct 

 quantity of liquid, but I fancy the little beast can go for a long 

 time without any drink at all ; he must often have to do without 

 it in the hot windy weather from June to September. 



After food, perhaps the next most important subject is medicine. 

 With the Loris I have only experienced two forms of ill-health, 

 diarrhoea and cramp, and both seem c arable by the same remedy, 

 viz., opium, taken in the form of laudanum ; three drops in a 

 teaspoonful of milk and water is in my experience a safe dose, 

 and it can be repeated twice in a day if the patient can be got to 

 take it ; he can be forced to do so of course, but he is rather frail. 



Y 8(17)05 



