314 



NA rURE 



[August 4, 1892 



important chemical processes discovered and patented on 

 the Continent which are not filed in our Patent Office, 

 and which are so long in finding their vvay into the 

 current literature that they are apt to be overlooked. 

 Chemists who have occasion to consult the admirable 

 series of tables by Schultz and Julius cannot but look 

 with admiration— even if tinged with envy — at the 

 brilliant series of discoveries which have emanated from 

 the laboratories of German universities, technical schools, 

 and factories. This is the fruit of technical education in 

 the true sense ; no system of cramming for an examina- 

 tion, no method of orthodox " test-tubing," not even the 

 "recreative institute" line of technical training, which is 

 so much in vogue at the present time, will enable us to 

 recover our lost position in this or in any other branch 

 of chemical technology. 



R. Meldola, 



RAM BRAMHA SANYAl ON THE MANAGE- 

 MENT OF ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. 



A Handbook on the Management of Animals in Cap- 

 tivity in Lower Bengal. By Ram Bramha Sdnydl, 

 Superintendent of the Zoological Garden, Calcutta. 

 (Calcutta, 1892.) 



C"" ONSIDERING the number of zoological gardens in 

 J Europe, and their long establishment, it is singular 

 that it should have been left to the superintendent of a 

 zoological garden at Calcutta, and to a native of India 

 withal, to produce the first practical handbook on the 

 management of animals in captivity. The author, who, 

 we believe, is a member of the " Brahma Somaj," and one 

 of the very few natives of British India that have exhibited 

 any taste for natural history, has been for some years 

 superintendent of the Zoological Garden at Calcutta, an 

 excellent institution mainly kept up by the Government 

 of Bengal, but under the control of a committee of the 

 subscribers. This committee, at the suggestion of Sir 

 Steuart Bayley, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, came 

 to the conclusion that, after thirteen years' experience of 

 the management of animals, it might be possible to pro- 

 duce a handbook on the subject which " would be of 

 interest to the scientific world," and at the same time " of 

 great use to nobles and other persons who, on a smaller 

 scale, keep a collection of animals in captivity." 



Such was the origin of the present volume, which has 

 been prepared by Babu Ram Bramha S;inyd.l, on a plan 

 drawn up by a sub-committee appointed for the purpose, 

 and has been supervised by Mr. C. E. Buckland, C.S., 

 who was at one time honorary secretary to the Calcutta 

 Garden, and is now a member of the Council of 

 the Zoological Society of London. It is certainly 

 a work of considerable interest. In the first place 

 it has the merit of giving us a complete classified list of 

 all the mammals and birds that have been kept alive in 

 the Calcutta Garden. These are, of course, mostly species 

 of British India— 241 of the class of mammals, and 402 

 birds — but there are a good many exotic forms among the 

 birds. In the second place large numbers of notes on 

 the treatment of the animals in health and in sickness, 

 on their length of life in captivity,, and generally on their 

 habits as observed in confinement are introduced, which, 

 although in some cases of an apparently trifling nature, 

 NO. I 188, VOL. 46] 



are well worthy of study by those who are engaged in the 

 custody of living animals. It> is evident that the author 

 has kept a regular journal, and has recorded his ex- 

 periences very minutely. In a case of a fight between a 

 lioness and a tiger, which were by some accident allowed 

 to pass into the same compartment of the Carnivora 

 house, the tiger was completely victorious and killed the 

 lioness. The longest period during which a tiger has 

 lived in the Calcutta Gardens is fourteen years. It is 

 curious that the Lesser Fruit-bat of Bengal {Cynopterus 

 marginatus) " does not appear to bear captivity well." A 

 nearly allied African species (C collaris) has completely 

 established itself in our Regent's Park Garden, and has 

 bred abundantly for the last twenty years. On January 

 30, 1889, a young rhinoceros was born in the Calcutta 

 Gardens, " the second recorded instance " of this mammal 

 having bred in captivity. Interesting details are given of 

 this event. The parents were a male Sumatran rhinoceros 

 and a female of the northern form of the same species, 

 which has been separated as Rhinoceros lasiotis. The 

 highest bliss of these animals, as the Babu points out, is 

 to " lie undisturbed in a muddy hollow," besmeared with 

 liquid dirt. 



In 1886 the Calcutta Garden obtained from Dar-es- 

 Salam, in Eastern Africa, a young hippopotamus, but it 

 did not live for more than eighteen months. Probably 

 its voyage from Zanzibar to Calcutta " in an ordinary box 

 without water" materially affected its health, as the 

 hippopotamus, if properly treated, does exceedingly well 

 in captivity. 



The authorities of the Calcutta Garden have not yet 

 succeeded in keeping the pangolin alive for any lengthened 

 period. The same has been the case in our Zoological 

 Gardens, where, although several examples of this Eden- 

 tate have been received, not one has survived many weeks. 

 This is curious, as both the American ant-eater 

 {Myzmecophaga) and the African ant-bear {Orycteropus) 

 maintain excellent health in captivity. It is suggested 

 that the difficulty of obtaining a supply of their proper 

 food —the termites — is the cause of this failure. At the 

 same time, when supplies of this insect have been placed 

 within reach the Pangolin has been "known to take no 

 notice of them." We cannot therefore suppose that the true 

 solution of this difficulty has yet been hit upon. It may 

 be stated that in a similar manner ant-eaters kept in this 

 country will not eat ant^, but thoroughly enjoy raw meat 

 when minced up small in a sausage machine. 



The second part of the handbook contains a list of the 

 birds exhibited in the Calcutta Garden, and correspond- 

 ing observations upon them, but naturally there is not 

 so much to be said on this branch of the subject. Among 

 the more interesting species of this order we notice the 

 fine large Laughing-thrush of the Himalayas {Garrulax 

 leucolophus), the gold-fronted chloropsis {Chloropsis 

 auri/rons), several sorts of drongo {Dicruridce), Gould's 

 ouzel {Merula gouldi), and the pheasant-tailed jacana 

 {Hydrophasianus chirurgus), all birds which are rarely, if 

 ever, seen in European aviaries. On the whole we must 

 allow that this volume is a remarkable production, con- 

 sidering the circumstances under which it has been pre- 

 pared, and that its author deserves great credit for the 

 pains bestowed on its composition, and for much valuable 

 information contained in it. 



