394 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
till some hours later, when its leg in most cases is found to be 
broken. This sort of thing does not conduce to longevity, and 
accordingly, after spending some fourteen or fifteen dollars, I had 
to leave off buying. 
Amongst the victims there were brought to me some ten 
or a dozen Gymnuras. They are stubborn, pig-like animals, 
with a strong rancid smell, and their most noticeable peculiarity 
is that if you approach close to them they jump into a threatening 
attitude, with jaws wide open, and so remain for a long time. On 
putting a bit of stick near it is seized with one sharp snap, the 
imprint of the teeth being left visible. Those brought me here 
were of a pure milk-white; others that were obtained about 
fifteen miles away had all the longer hairs tipped with black.* 
There is very little animal life to be seen in the tropical forest 
round this place. I may take half-a-dozen long walks through 
the forest without seeing a single creature, even though it be but 
a Monkey or a Squirrel; yet there are plenty of animals if they 
would only show, but they are nearly all nocturnal, and where 
they hide in the day it is hard to say. This I could understand 
in a country where any species of the flesh-feeding Felide occur, 
but here there is nothing more formidable than a Civet or a 
Musang. ‘That animal life abounds, however, is plain; one has 
only to visit the top of any small hill, and a regular path is found 
to be worn along the ridge of it, entirely made by the numbers of 
small mammals that continually wander about at night. 
Of the wild animals of this particular district (spoken of by old 
travellers as ‘Felicia”) the most noticeable is the Elephant. 
That it should occur in Borneo is only what might be expected, 
but why it should be confined to this part of the island is strange. 
To the south of the Bay of Sandakan vast herds roam the forest. 
The proportion of tuskers to the others is about one in four or 
five. The natives of these parts are not great hunters, but they 
sometimes find it necessary to turn out in defence of their crops 
and kill one or two. 
Rhinoceroses are not infrequent; the tracks of one or two may 
usually be seen in the course of a walk in the low districts. I have 
* The general colour of Sumatran specimens is blackish grey, with the 
head and neck much paler, inclining, in fact, to white, and with a black 
streak over each eye. Those procured in Sarawak are said to resemble the 
Bornean type.—Ep. 
