6b4 LETTER FROM MR. R. B. N. WALKER. [Nov. 4, 



September 10th by Henry Bay ley, Esq. : new to the Society's collec- 

 tion. 



2. A Violet-naped Lory (Eos riciniata), purchased September 26th, 

 being of a species new to the Society's extensive collection of Parrots. 



The following extracts from a letter addressed by Mr. R. B. N. 

 Walker, C.M.Z.S., to Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., and communicated 

 to the Society by the latter, were read : — 



" Hulk ' Princess Koyal,' 

 " Corisco Bay, 



" May 5, 1873. 



" I regret to inform you that my hopes of sending a live Gorilla 

 to the Zoological Society of London have once more been dis- 

 appointed, and in a most singular manner. 



" On the 11th ult., I purchased from a native a fine healthy male 

 Gorilla, apparently about two years of age. Being under the im- 

 pression that those living specimens which I had formerly succeeded 

 in obtaining (five in all) had been taken too much care of, I deter- 

 mined in the present instance to adopt a different system and to allow 

 the animal to have its own way, simply taking precautions to prevent 

 its being injured and at the same time to guard against its destructive 

 and mischievous propensities. When purchased, the animal was by 

 no means savage or spiteful, but rather what may be more properly 

 termed shy and suspicious of strangers : at the expiration of about 

 a week, however, it became sufficiently tame and confiding to admit 

 of its being allowed to run about loose and to do as it liked ; at the 

 same time its food, instead of being confined to the fruits on which 

 it is supposed to feed in its wild state, consisted in general of frag- 

 ments from my own table and that of the mate, which, however, was 

 varied by any thing edible which it could lay its hands on, and 

 occasionally by a basin of condensed milk with a raw egg beaten up 

 in it, and by fruit, including that of a species of Amomum, which it 

 was very fond of, but which we found invariably to cause severe 

 diarrhoea when eaten alone in any quantity ; the disease, however, 

 was soon checked by administering a raw egg and a few drops of 

 chlorodyne. Finding that the animal had become so tame, it was 

 left entirely to its own devices, especially as every one in the ship 

 was at the same time so very busy as not to be able to pay much 

 attention to it. It soon became quite at home in the hulk, alter- 

 nately eating, sleeping, and playing with a large bull terrier (of by 

 no means the most amiable disposition), which has a most decided 

 dislike to negroes, but nevertheless took very kindly to the Gorilla 

 (although of the same colour as natives), so that the two animals 

 became constant playfellows. 



" By allowing the Gorilla to rough it, instead of constantly watching 

 it and appointing some one to take care of it, in which case (according 

 to my own experience during twenty-two years) these animals become 

 so much attached to their keeper or attendant that a separation 

 from him almost invariably causes these affectionate apes to pine 



