7704 Quadrupeds. 



every place in tlie house, snorting like a bog. The whole bixly, tayle, ami legs being 

 covered wilh scales of a thumbe breadth, harder than iron or steel. We hewed and 

 layed upon them with weapons, as if men should beate upon an anvill, and when we 

 stmoke upon him he rouled himself in a heape, head and feete logeihtr, so ihat he lay 

 like a round ball, we not being able to judge whether he closed himself together, ney- 

 iher could we with any instrument or strength of hands open him againe, but letting 

 him alone and not touching hiu), he opened himself nud raiineaway, as 1 said before." 

 —E. Bh/lh. 



The Musk Cul nf Shanghai. — So little is known of the Mammalia of China that 

 any contribution on the subject is of interest to zoologists. There is an animal known 

 at Shanghai as the " musk cat," which I suspect is a species of marten unknown to 

 naturalists. It is thus described: — " A beauli(ul animal, of about 'the size of the 

 common cat, but longer in form ; in fact, somewhat resembling the marten, with a 

 long bushy tail, like the brush of a fox. Emits an exceedingly powerful and by no 

 means disagreeable musky odour. Lives in holes of the ground, and also climbs into 

 trees and bushes in search of birds and their nests. Exceedingly destructive to the 

 pheasants when sitting, and is much hunted by the natives for its fur.'' — Bengal 

 Sporting Magazine. Probably identical with the " large marten " of the Amiir terri- 

 tory, noticed in the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society' for 1858 (vol. 

 xxviii. p. 424). — Id. 



Wild Swine iti Sumatra. — " A species of wild hog in Sumatra, of a gray colour, 

 and smaller than the English swine, frequents the impenetrable bushes and marshes 

 of the sea-coast ; they associate in herds and live on crabs and roots. ' At certain 

 periods of the year they swim in herds, consisting of sometimes a thousand, from one 

 side of the river Siak to the other at its mouth, which is three or four miles broad, and 

 again return at staled times. This kind of passage also takes place in the small 

 islands, by their swimming from one to the other. On these occasions they are 

 hunted by the Saletlians, a Malay tribe residing on the coasts of the kingdom of Siak. 

 These men are said to smell the swine long before they see them, and when they do 

 this they immediately prepare their boats. They then send out their dogs, which are 

 trained for this kind of hunting, along the strand, where, by their barking, they pre- 

 vent the swine from coming ashore and concealing themselves among the bushes. 

 During the passage the boars precede, and are followed by the females and young, all 

 in regular rows, each resting its snout on the rump of the preceding one. Swimming 

 thus in close rows, they present a singular appearance. The Saletlians, men and 

 women, meet them in their small flat boats. The former row, and throw large mats, 

 made of the long leaves of the Pandanus odoratissima interwoven through each other, 

 before the leader of each row of swine, which still continue to swim with gi-eat 

 strength, but soon pushing their feet into the mats, they get so entangled as to be 

 either disabled altogether from moving, or only to move very slowly. The rest are, 

 however, neither alarmed nor disconcerted, but keep close to each other, none of them 

 leaving the position in which they were placed. The men then row towards them in 

 a lateral direction ; and the women, armed with long javelins, stab as many of the 

 swine as they can reach. For those beyond their reach they are furnished with 

 smaller spears, about six feet in length, which they dart to the distance of thirty or 

 forty feet with a sure aim. As it is impossible for them to throw mats before all the 

 rows, the rest of these animals swim off, in regular order, to the place from which they 

 had set out, and for this time escape the danger; and the dead swine, floating around 



