210 Zoological Society, 



at thirteen or fourteen years old, is quite as much a man or woman 

 as those of nineteen or twenty in our more northern clime. Tlieir 

 height, when full-grown, is said to be between four and five feet : 

 indeed I was credibly informed, that a male Chimpanzee, which 

 had been shot in the neighbourhood and brought into Free Town, 

 measured four feet five inches in length, and was so heavy as to form 

 a very fair load for two men, who carried him on a pole between 

 them. The natives say that in their wild state their strength is 

 enormous, and that they have seen them snap boughs off the trees 

 with the greatest apparent ease, which the united strength of two 

 men could scarcely bend. The Chimpanzee is, without doubt, to 

 be found in all the countries from the banks of the Gambia in the 

 north, to the kingdom of Congo in the south, as the natives of all 

 the intermediate parts seem to be perfectly acquainted with them. 

 From my own experience I can state that the low shores of the Bul- 

 lom country, situated on the northern shores of the river Sierra 

 Leone, are infested by them in numbers quite equal to the commonest 

 species of monkey. I consider these animals to be gregarious, for 

 when visiting the rice farms of the Chief Dalla Mohammadoo, on 

 the Bullom shore, their cries plainly indicated the vicinity of a troops 

 as the noise heard could not have been produced by less than eight 

 or ten of them. The natives also affirmed, that they always travel 

 in strong bodies, armed with sticks, which they use with much dex- 

 terity. They are exceedingly watchful, and the first one who discovers 

 the approach of a stranger utters a protracted cry, much resembling 

 that of a human being in the greatest distress. The difficulty of 

 procuring live specimens of this genus arises principally, I should 

 say, from the superstitions of the natives concerning them, who be- 

 lieve they possess the power of ' witching.* 



" There are authors who have, I believe, affirmed that some of the 

 natives on the western coast term these animals in their language 

 •Pongos;' but I observed that all the natives in the neighbourhood of 

 Sierra Leone, when speaking of this animal, invariably called him 

 ' Baboo,' a corruption, I should suppose, of our term Baboon." 



At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Ogilby proceeded to make 

 some observations upon a new species of Monkey, now living at the 

 Society's Menagerie, which he characterized as follows : — 



Papio Melanotus. p. cinereo-brunneus ; capite, dorso, lumhis- 

 que sub-nigris ; caudd brevissimd, nitdd ; facie^ auriculisque 

 pallidis. 



The specimen from which this description is taken is a young 



male, said to have been brought from Madras. It has at first sight a 



