830 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



same results as when consumed by a creature 

 that is alert and moving. 



AVith these nocturnal primates, as well as 

 with all our monkeys, it is our rule never to 

 "gorge" them, but rather to serve their food in 

 several meals. By oilering a very moderate 

 amount of food, at a regular hour during the 

 morning, we have taught our nocturnal animals 

 to expect this routine, and they are in conse- 

 quence awake and ready for it. In the room in 

 which they are kept is an exercising shelf, fully 

 forty feet long, from which there is no possi- 

 bility of escape. On this, after eating, these 

 creatures which usually evince sluggish habits 

 in captivity, are placed. They are fed again at 

 night. From our studies of their likes and dis- 

 likes we have found them to be largely carniv- 

 orous. On a diet consisting largely of young 

 rats and birds, we have had uniform good luck 

 with them, and have noted no specimens afflicted 

 with cage paralysis. 



Experiments are now being conducted with 

 two monkeys rarely seen in captivity. These 

 are a Humboldt's woolly monkey and a red 

 howler. These species are notoriously deli- 

 cate, their average life as captives being about 

 three months. After keeping them in a verita- 

 ble sun room, giving them constant exercise, 

 keeping them hungry by feeding a little at a 

 time, every few hours during the day, we have 

 the satisfaction of herewith ]iublishing their 

 photographs and explaining that the woolly 

 monkey has been in our possession about eigh- 

 teen months, and the red howler has about 

 doubled the limit usually given such specimens 

 to survive. The latter are markedly carnivor- 

 ous, and we feed them largely upon boiled meat, 

 beaten eggs and sterilized milk. 



As examples of other delicate and rare mam- 

 mals on exhibition in the Park, it is of interest 

 to mention the continued thriving condition of 

 the panda, which is fed onh' at night, and the 

 greater kudu, exhibited in the Antelope House. 

 The latter often is regarded as "impossible" for 

 zoological gardens. The kudu has suffered 

 once from gastric troubles, until a certain 

 amount of grain, apparently too small for a 

 mammal of its size, was found to be properly 

 assimilated. On this measured amount, it has 

 been daily fed, for over two years, and the prime 

 condition of this rare and beautiful creature 

 shows the result of the keeper's sympathetic at- 

 tention. 



In closing this summary it is appropriate to 

 mention the two huge Hoffman sloths that have 

 lived in the Primate House during the record 



time, for these sluggish creatures, of over four 

 years. 



PYGMY ELEPHANTS OF AFRICA. 

 By R. L. G.\RXER.* 



IN offering this small contribution to science, I 

 do not pose as an authority on elephants ; on 

 the contrary I claim to know very little about 

 them from actual experience. The sole motive 

 that I have in selecting this subject is simply to 

 transmit to others who are interested in them 

 some data gained from native hunters and white 

 traders in the French Congo, where I have spent 

 many years and most of the time in the locality 

 where this little-known race or species of the 

 dwarf elephant abound. 



As a rule all native stories about large ani- 

 mals are more or less distorted ; but at the same 

 time they usually contain some element of truth 

 which is worthy of being sought out. To find 

 the ultimate facts, the most feasible plan is to 

 compare the different versions of a current re- 

 port and give most credence to those details 

 which most nearly coincide in all of them. The 

 process of searching out the fundamental facts 

 of native stories is something like the arithme- 

 tical process of finding the greatest common di- 

 visor of a series of numbers. By such a method, 

 I long since arrived at the conclusion that two 

 distinct types of elephant inhabit the basin of 

 Lake Fernan Vaz, and the banks of some of that 

 lake's tributaries. It is now more than five 

 years since I reported this fact to Dr. Wm. T. 

 Hornaday, director of the Zoological Park. 



The first reports that I heard of the existence 

 of two species of elephants were rather vague, 

 and in some points conflicting; but all concurred 

 in giving a distinctly different name to each of 

 the two types described, and in assigning the 

 smaller one to certain localities. 



In the Nkami country, where both types are 

 well known, and as I think very accurately de- 

 scribed, the ordinary elephant is universally 

 known as njagu while the smaller one is called 

 mcsalla. All the native hunters concur in most 

 points in their description of the differences 

 between the two races, and this description is 

 confirmed by several white traders that I have 

 met in that country. 



The common type of elephant is distributed 

 over nearly all parts of the French Congo, while 

 the pygmy type is found only in one small lo- 

 cality, in the Fernan Vaz district, and that is on 

 the north and east sides of Lake Ntyonga, and 

 between it and Lake Nenga, They are prob- 



*AI1 rights to text are reserved by the author. 



