202 MR. R. E. HOLDING ON THE HORNS OF THE GALLA OX. [Mar. 15, 



" The old male must have died after 3 or 4 years. I have bought 

 at different times two or three more Beavers, but I believe these 

 were all killed after a few weeks by two old (probably barren) 

 females. These, therefore, I caught up, and having secured a young 

 male the colony seemed to flourish again. A young one was seen 

 tw years ago, but a few months since a young male was found dead, 

 which was probably the same animal. It had most likely been 

 killed in a fight with its father. It is difficult to say how many 

 Beavers there are now, but only three have been seen together 

 lately at any one time. 



" The earlier dam was built of small sticks and earth ; now the 

 Beavers use much larger sticks, and I think they are doing much 

 more work than ever. 



" About 18 months ago I enlarged the enclosure, taking in ground 

 lower dov^'n with more of the stream. The Beavers at once set 

 about building a new dam, and bayed up the water back to the old 

 dam, partly submerging it. The object of tlie dam is to make sure 

 of a pond sufficiently deep to keep it from freezing to the bottom 

 in hard winters. When the water is frozen over the Beavers 

 depend for their living on then- winter store of twigs and branches, 

 which they fix in the mud at the bottom of their pond. The 

 mouths of their burrows being under water, they cannot come out 

 when the ice covers the water. 



"The growth of the 'lodge' is curious. It can hardly be said 

 that Beavers hidld a lodge, it grows. They begin by making a 

 burrow in the bank, opening under water and rising up into dry 

 land. At the end is a chamber: this they floor with long strips 

 of white wood, which look at first sight like clean straw. As 

 this gets wet and muddy from their feet they put down fresh 

 straw for bedding, and so the floor of the chamber rises. To get 

 head room they scratch away the earth from the ' ceiling ' until at 

 last they get through into open air. This hole they stop up from 

 the outside, heaping upon the chamber sticks and mud and turf. 

 The process goes on until quite a high lodge is built." 



Mr. B,. E. Holding exhibited and made remarks upon a fine pair 

 of horns of the " Sunga " or Galla Ox of Abyssinia, indicating 

 briefly their upright growth and some minor points in the form of 

 the frontal bones and horn-cores, which showed their affinity to 

 the Humped Cattle or Zebus of India, this interesting group also 

 extending into Egypt, Abyssinia, and East Africa down to the Cape. 

 In the Galla country these cattle were said to attain a large size, 

 and to be usually of a bay or brown colour, and to carry enormous 

 horns. A pair in the Eoyal College of Surgeons Museum were 46 

 inches long each, and 15 inches in girth at the base. Another pair 

 in the British Museum were 414 inches long each horn, and 15 

 inches in girth at the base. Other examples even larger were 

 known. The pair exhibited were slightly under these sizes. The 



