THE ZOOLOGIOAL SOCIETY. 181 



added to the list, including the twelve-wired and red bird of 

 paradise, the green manucode, the Indian darter, and Germain's 

 poljplectron. 



Next year four pygmy hogs were purchased. This species 

 was described by Bryan Hodgson,"^ as " about the size of a large 

 hare, and extremely resembling a young pig of the ordinary wild 

 kind of about a month old, except in its dark and unstriped 

 pelage." These curious animals are found in the sal forests of 

 the Sikkim and Nepal Terai. Their hue is blackish brown, 

 " shaded vaguely with dirty amber or rusty red." There is some 

 resemblance to the peccary, apparently in disposition as well as 

 in shape. They go in herds, and the males fearlessly attack 

 intruders, " charging and cutting the naked legs of their human 

 or other attackers with a speed that baffles the eyesight, 

 and a spirit which their straight sharp laniaries render really 

 perplexing, if not dangerous." 



The heloderm lizard — the Gila Monster of the Mexicans — 

 presented by Lord Avebury (then Sir John Lubbock) appeared 

 for the first time on the list. Experiments showed that the 

 bite was fatal to guinea-pigs. t Sir Joseph Fayrer suggested that 

 " the saliva contained a higher quantity of active principle than 

 that of other lizards, and that all saliva contained a trace of this 

 principle which was so intensely active in the cobra and viper." 



Coquerel's mouse-lemur was also exhibited for the first time, 

 and among the birds new to the collection were the rifle-bird, 

 the radiated fruit-cuckoo, with gait and actions resembling those 

 of a gallinaceous bird, a jackass penguin, and a cock and two 

 hens of Elliot's pheasant. 



Sally, the famous chimpanzee, was purchased in 1880, and 

 lived nearly eight years in the Gardens, establishing a record for 



* Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal^ May, 1847, pp. 423-28. Garson's paper 

 {Proceedings, 1883, pp. 413-418) went to show that Hodgson's supposed generic 

 characters did not exist. 



t Dr. J. Fischer was quoted by Mr. Boulenger at the meeting of November 14 

 as authority for the statement that a gentleman was bitten by one of these lizards, 

 and *' the effects were of a very serious character." Mr. W. T. Hornaday, in his 

 "American Natural History " (p. 335), records the fact that Mr. A. Z. Schindler was 

 bitten by a Gila Monster, at the United States National Museum, but apart from a 

 very natural degree of irritation and soreness of the wound he experienced no 

 permanent ill-effects. 



