586 DR. A. GtiNTHER ON BORNEAN [Apr. 16, 



seven species of small Indian Cetacea, one of them being remarkable 

 for its affinity to the Sperm-Whale {Physeter); and there is no 

 reason to suppose we have not still a good deal to learn about the 

 Cetacea of that region. It is not improbable, therefore, that the so- 

 called " Palmyra fish " may belong to a section hitherto unnoticed ; 

 and I have now brought, the subject before the Society in the hope 

 that these notes may fall into the hands of persons having oppor- 

 tunities of making further observations on the animal, and of ob- 

 taining information on the many points about which unfortunately 

 I can say nothing. 



It may be worth while recording here a circumstance in connexion 

 with the Cetacea, which came under my notice one day whilst I was at 

 anchor on the Pearl Banks. Besides the well-known Dugong 

 (Halicore), which the late Sir J. Emerson Tennent has figured (Nat. 

 Hist, of Ceylon, p. 69, 1861) sitting up in the water like a supposed 

 mermaid (a position never observed by myself or any one I have been 

 able to meet with), three easily distinguished forms of Dolphin or 

 Porpoise frequented the north-west coast of Ceylon — one of them, 

 remarkable for its long slender snout, being probably Delphinus lon- 

 girostris. A herd of about two hundred of this species, the largest 

 number I ever saw together, was one day observed slowly advancing 

 in a closely packed line towards the vessel. They were making a 

 great commotion and apparently driving a shoal of small fish ; but 

 whilst thus engaged, I distinctly observed, at least four or five times, 

 a pair of these animals assume a vertical position, with their heads well 

 above the surface, for three or four seconds. This attitude is so pre- 

 cisely what has been described by several persons who have had 

 good opportunities of observing Cetaceans as the one assumed whilst 

 in copuld, that I have no doubt what I then saw will bear the same 

 explanation. The performance was repeated in different parts of the 

 line, but only at one place at a time, as if there were one eager male 

 paying his attentions successively to different individuals of the 

 opposite sex. This is what might be expected among gregarious 

 animals ; but the frequency with which I have observed a single pair 

 of Porpoises in our own harbours leads me to doubt whether even 

 the generally gregarious species of Cetacea are in all cases unrestricted 

 in their loves, and to believe that pairing, at all events during part 

 of the year, may be the rule with some of them. 



7. On the Reptiles and Amphibians of Borneo. 

 By Albert Gunther, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., F.R.S., F.Z.S. 



[Received March 21, 1872.] 



(Plates XXXV.-XL.) 



In order to determine the specimens of a considerable collection 

 of Reptiles and Amphibians, made by Mr. Everett at Matang in the 

 district of Sarawak, and recently purchased by the Trustees of the 



