1870.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE MAMMALS OF HAINAN. 225 
Du Halde (Description de la Chine, a.p. 1735, tome i. p. 230), in 
an account of the natural productions of Hainan, writes :—‘‘ Among 
the animals that the island produces is seen a curious species of Great 
Black Ape, whose physiognomy somewhat approaches the human 
face; so well are the features marked ; but this species is rare.”’ 
Having learnt of the existence of this Black Ape in Hainan, I 
naturally never ceased to inquire after it. Every one knew that 
such an animal did exist, and many had seen it; but they all spoke 
of the great difficulty of keeping it alive. At Taipingsze (Central 
Hainan) the wonderful stories that were told about it showed that 
the Yuen was not often seen there. The magistrate of that district 
assured me, with a serious face, that it had the power of drawing into 
its body its long arm-bones, and that when it drew in one arm it pushed 
out the other to such an extraordinary length that he believed the 
two bones united in the body ; and he said that the bones of the arm 
were used for chopsticks. At Lingshuy (S.E£. Hainan) the magis- 
trate knew the animal and had kept it alive. His military colleague 
was in the hill-districts, but he would be back in a few days; and if 
we could wait, the magistrate thought he could get us a live specimen 
of the Ape. At all events, he would procure the animal and take 
it with him for us to Canton, whither he hoped to go before long. 
We could not, of course, wait, and we never heard of the mandarin 
or his good intentions again. At Nychow (S. Hainan) the commo- 
dore’s secretary told me that only a few days previous to our visit 
he had had one alive, but that it had died, and he had had it buried. 
At my request he had the remains looked for. The top of the skull 
was all that was found; the dogs had destroyed the rest. He gave 
me this fragment, as also a pair of u/ne of an older animal, which 
he was going to turn into chopsticks (the Chinese ‘ knife and fork,” 
so to speak). Qn our return to the capital of Hainan a rumour 
reached us that one existed in confinement in the city. The admiral 
there took the matter in hand and did his best to secure it for us. 
But the rumour was false; no such animal could be found; so we 
had to leave Hainan with only the fragments above mentioned of 
this much desired Wooyuen. 
The portion of the skull obtained is that of a very young animal, 
and is therefore of not much value for determining the species. But 
the uln@ are apparently adult, and are certainly those of a species 
of Hylobates. 
Length of ulna of adult 11°4 inches. 
On the 9th of April, 1861, a paper was read by Dr. J. E. Gray 
before this Society on a collection of Mammals &c. made by M. 
Mouhot in Cambodia (P. Z.S. d.c.), in which a species of Hylobates 
(i. pileatus) was described from an island off Cambodia. ‘There is 
a fine stuffed group of this in the Mammal Gallery of the British 
Museum, showing the varieties of colour spoken of by the Chinese 
author, which, as Dr. Gray points out, are due to age and sex. This 
species from Cambodia must be closely related to, if not identical 
with, the Wooyuen of Hainan. 
The jet-black Rock-Yuen referred to in the Gazetteer may possibly 
