20 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



interest to give a short description of their method of using such a tool. 

 The low-water rocks of the islands of the Mergui Archipelago are covered 

 with Oysters, large and small. A Monkey, probably Macacus cynomolgiis, 

 which infests these islands, prowls about the shore when the tide is low, 

 opening the rock-oysters with a stone by striking the base of the upper 

 valve until it dislocates and breaks up. He then extracts the Oyster with 

 his finger and thumb, occasionally putting his mouth straight to the broken 

 shell. On disturbing them, I generally found that they had selected a 

 stone more apparently for convenience in handling than for its value as a 

 hammer, and it was smaller in proportion to what a human being would 

 have selected for a proportionate amount of work. In short, it was usually 

 a stone they could get their fingers round. As the rocks crop up through 

 the low-water mud, the stone had to be brought from high-water mark, 

 this distance varying from ten to [eighty yards. This Monkey has chosen 

 the easiest way to open the rock-oyster — viz., to dislocate the valves by a 

 blow on the base of the upper one, and to break the shell over the 

 attaching muscle. The Gibbon also frequents these islands, but I never 

 saw one of them on the beach." — Alfred Carpenter (Marine Survey 

 Office, Bombay). 



Identity of the European and American Moose. — In his " Catalogue 

 of the Mammals of Massachusetts," published in the ' Bulletin of the 

 Harvard College Museum' (vol. i. p. 195), Mr. J. A. Allen remarks of 

 the European and American Moose that their distribution is remarkably 

 alike, reaching the Arctic coast in both continents, and extending south- 

 wards to the same isotherm. On the whole, he considers their identity as 

 extremely probable, if not absolutely certain. 



Origin of the name "Lobster" applied to the Stoat.— As allusion 

 has been already made to this subject (Zool. 1884, pp. 112, 158), it may be 

 of interest to note that the name "lobster" is used by Abraham Fleming 

 in his English translation of Dr. Caius' work " De Canibus Britannicis." 

 The word Mustelas, which is used by the author in its generic sense, is 

 rendered by his translator " the polecat, the lobster, the weasell," as if 

 enumerating the British species of the genus Mustela. Inferentially, then, 

 we get the use of this name for the Stoat in 1576. — J. E. Harting. 



The early use of Ferrets. — A statute of 13 Rich. II., reciting that 

 divers artificers, labourers, and others keep greyhounds and other dogs, 

 and on the feast-days when good Christians are at church, go hunting in 

 parks and warrens, to the great destruction of the game, enacts that " no 

 such person who has not lauds and tenements to the value of 40s. per 

 annum, shall keep auy such greyhound or other dog to hunt, nor shall use 

 fyrets, hays, nets, harepipes, nor cords nor other engines to take or 



