The Zoologist— June, 1868. 1253 



Antbropopilhecus niger. General colour black, sometimes gray in old age. Head 

 bald, black and shining; chin of adult bearded. Ears large, much larger than 

 those of A. Gorilla, though smaller than those of the chimpanzee. Habitat, 

 the deep forests, and the table lands of equatorial Africa. Figure of skeleton, 

 Dnvernoy, Arch, du Mus, vol. ix. Figure of entire animal, Du Chaillu, ' Equatorial 

 Africa,' p. 406. A fine adult skeleton of this rare anthropoidal ape, first noticed as a 

 distinct species by the late lamented Dm emoy, has been lor some lime in the collec- 

 tion of the Academy, and has been regarded until lately as that of the A. uiger. For 

 a full account of the osteological difference between the two species, I must refer to 

 Duvernoy's most valuable and interesting paper; though, on placing the skulls of the 

 two animals side by side, their specific differences must be apparent to the most 

 superficial observer. A careful study of the species appears to me to clearly prove the 

 fallacy of regarding the A. Gorilla as the type of a distinct genus, as has been clone by 

 St. Hilaire, the tschego combining in a remarkable degree the characteristics of both 

 genera. The cranial crests, so much insisted on as generic characters of the gorilla, 

 are to be seen, though in a less degree of development, in the tschego, while with the 

 black face of the gorilla are associated the large ears of the chimpanzee, and, in fact, 

 all the characteristics of the animal are intermediate between those of the two genera, 

 The names tschego, nshego and ncheko appear, from the accounts of travellers, to have 

 been applied indiscriminately by the natives to all species of anthropoidal apes. To 

 this species has been ascribed the faculty of constructing a nest or shelter among the 

 higher branches of trees, as a protection from the inclemency of the weather during the 

 rainy season. This, according to Du Chaillu (' Equatorial Africa,' p. 407) is covered 

 with leaves, compactly laid together, at such an angle as to readily shed the rain. 

 The branches are fastened to the trunk of the tree with vines; the loof is generally 

 Irom six to eight feet in diameter. Surely this roof-constructing power must place its 

 builder the highest in the scale of the quadrumana. The only figure of this animal 

 in the flesh that I have met with is to be found iu Du Chaillu's work. The so- 

 called young in the same plate, however, resembles in a most remarkable degree a 

 daguerreotype from life of a young A. niger, which died some years ago in the Jardin 

 des Plantes at Paris. It must therefore be received cvm grano satis." — Edward 

 Newman. 



Note on the Liver of the Wild Boar. — Referring to my note of the 31st of March, 

 respecting the idea that the age of the bear and otter can be ascertained by counting 

 the lobes of the liver, I desire to call attention to the statement of a correspondent at 

 Bucharest of the ' Field ' newspaper, published in that paper on the 2nd instant, from 

 which it would appear tliat a similar opinion is entertained respecting the liver of the 

 wild boar by the peasants of Wallachia : this additional coincidence appears to me to 

 be very remarkable. — ./. H. Gurney ; May 4, 1868. 



Food of the Oiler. — Is the otter known to feed on fresh-water mussels? Possibly 

 Mr. Alston, who has given the readers of the 'Zoologist' so many interesting letters 

 on British Quadrupeds, can tell us. Last February I was at Burton, near Petworlh, 

 in Sussex, and there, on the banks of a stream frequented by the otter, I found 

 quantities of shells of fresh-water mussels (Anodon cygneus and Unio pictorum), the 

 first-named being the most numerous. These shells were mostly in pairs still united, 

 but in every case either one shell or both were chipped at one end, and not broken in 

 the way in which a crow would do it. Moreover, the crow is a scarce bird in the 



