378 LETTERS FROM MR. R. SWINHOE. [Nov. 8, 
on the 25th of January, and the other on the 2nd of April, 1845), 
although I tried very much to get more specimens of this interesting 
and gigantic species. After having left Tette, my friend Pascoal 
wrote to me that his negroes had caught a ‘ Cadua’ for me, which 
he sent to Quillimane, where I then resided. But this specimen 
died before the person to whom he confided it arrived in Quillimane, 
and was thrown away, to my great regret. 
“5. If Dr. Kirk would look into my vocabularies (partly pub- 
lished by Dr. Black), ‘ The Language of Mozambique,’ p. 290 (1856, 
London, printed by Harrison and Sons, St. Martin’s Lane), he 
might find that ‘penu’ (pronounced pai-noo) is the word which 
signifies, not only at Tette, but also at Jena and Quillimane, ‘I do 
not know.’ 
‘I cannot believe that the language of Tette can have changed so 
much since my time, that a word which only exists in a misprint 
at Berlin should have been introduced instead of a word which was 
used every day, and at the same time, in three different dialects. 
“°6. Neither did I hear that the Gerrhosaurus ‘ enters the fowl- 
houses and kills the fowls,’ which is rather astonishing, as the Ger- 
rhosaurus does neither climb nor fly, and the fowl-houses, at least at 
Tette, are provided with perches, on account of the rats. Dr. Kirk 
will, perhaps, be able to tell us whether the same native who gave 
him such valuable information about the customs and common appear- 
ance of the Gerrhosaurus was his teacher in the language of Tette.”’ 
The Secretary read the following extracts from letters recently 
addressed by Mr. R. Swinhoe, H. B. M. Consul in Formosa, to Dr. 
J. E. Gray :— 
“ Foochow, 27th July, 1864. 
«Having been cruising about the Formosan Channel for the last 
month, I have arrived at last at Foochow; and being detained at 
this port a few days, I have managed to find leisure to make a few 
notes in zoology. The only strange mammal that has yet occurred 
here is a Porcupine (Hystriz, sp.?). It was killed before I got here, 
and unfortunately not preserved; I regret, therefore, that I have 
no remarks to offer as to its appearance. The people who shot it 
are positive that it was wild, though I strongly suspect it was brought 
up from Singapore ina junk. At Amoy I heard of some Hedge- 
hogs (Hrinaceus) having been offered for sale, but of what species I 
could not ascertain. They were said to have been taken in the vici- 
nity. A gentleman here has two magnificent skins from Newchwang, 
the northernmost part of China. One is that of a Tiger, the Chinese 
race, pale, with few stripes; and the other that of a Leopard, evi- 
dently your Leopardus japonensis. I strongly suspect that the 
animal you procured with a Japanese stamp was a skin procured by 
the Japanese in their trading-stations. No Leopard is said by the 
Japanese to inhabit the islands of Japan. 
**T am about to remove from Tamsuy to Takow, S. W. Formosa, 
very shortly. I am closing up and sending home all my collections, 
and will send you a memoir on the new mammals added to the For- 
