June 14, 1831. 



Joshua Brookes, Esq. in the Chair. 



A letter addressed to the Secretary of the Society by Charles 

 Telfair, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z. S., dated Port Louis, December 

 15th, 1830, was read. It referred to previous unsuccessful 

 attempts on the part of the Society's valuable correspondent to 

 transport from the Mauritius to England living Gouramies and 

 Tanrecs, and promised a repetition of the experiment. Mr. Tel- 

 fair states that he has now a pair of living Tanrecs fully grown 

 ready to send to England when he can place them under proper 

 care. " They live on boiled rice, but will probably not exist long 

 upon that alone, as their natural food is chiefly composed of worms, 

 insects, lizards, and the eggs of snails, of which it would be difficult 

 to carry a sufficient supply in a living state on board ship. Fresh 

 supplies might, however, be obtained at Madagascar or the Cape of 

 Good Hope, at St. Helena, Ascension, and the Cape de Verd 

 Islands ; and the animals might thus arrive in good health in En- 

 gland, where they would probably survive for some time burrowing 

 under a dungheap, or living in straw in a hot-house or green- 

 house. An opportunity would thus be furnished of observing their 

 habits. In the Mauritius they sleep through the greater part of the 

 winter, from April to November, and are only to be found when 

 summer heat is felt, which being generally ushered in by an electric 

 state of the atmosphere, the negroes (with whom they are a favour- 

 ite food) say they are awakened by the peals of thunder which 

 precede the summer storms or 'pluies d'orage.' Even in summer 

 they are not often seen beyond the holes in which they burrow, 

 except at night. Their favourite haunts are among the old roots 

 of clumps of bamboos. They have a very overpowering smell of 

 musk at all times, which is increased to an extraordinary degree 

 when they are disturbed or frightened: yet their flesh is considered 

 so savoury by the negroes that they are unwilling to sell those 

 which they catch, and would not exchange it for any other food, 

 except perhaps for the ' ourite,' which is the Catfish hung up in 

 the sun until it acquires a most foetid smell tainting the atmosphere 

 to a great distance ; in this state it is a chief ingredient in their fa- 

 vourite ragout. This mode of living may be one of the causes of 

 the peculiar odour of the skin of the woolly-headed race, which no 

 ablutions can remove, and which is not less distinctive of their race 

 than the colour of the skin itself." 



Mr. Telfair then refers to the collection of Fishes last presented 



by him to the Society, portions of which have been exhibited at 



the Meetings of the Committee on the 12th and 26th of April. He 



is continuing his ichthyological collections, and states the proceed- 



[No.VIII.] ZooL. Soc, Proceedings of the Comm. or Science, 



