98 L. Schwendler — On Ailurus fulgens. [May, 



Mr. Schwendler then gave an interesting account of the peculiar habits 

 of the " red cat-hear," Ailurus fulgens, and illustrated his remarks hy ex- 

 hibiting a living specimen, which he received some months ago through the 

 kindness of Captain Hartopp, who obtained the animal from Darjiling. 



He stated that the animal was first described by Cuvier, who referred 

 it to a special genus, of which, however, up to the present time it is the 

 only species known. General Hardwicke was the discoverer of the animal, and 

 in Jerdon's " Mammals of India" a veiy good description of it will be found. 



Mr. Schwendler called special attention to the peculiar manner in which 

 the cat-bear feeds. It takes a piece of bread soaked in milk into its mouth, 

 and then throws back its head, so that the piece of bread slips down into its 

 throat by its weight, after which it begins to swallow. If the piece of 

 bread is not quite in the right position in its mouth, the little animal makes 

 use of one of its forepaws in a most comical manner to put it right. 



The animal is said to be very rare, and has probably never reached 

 Europe alive. It lives at from 7,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea level, in 

 the South-Eastern ranges of the Himalayas. It seems, however, to be 

 standing the hot season of Calcutta very well. 



The general form of the body is that of a bear ; it has the tail of a fox, 

 the head between that of a cat and a fox, and the ears of a lynx. Mr. 

 Schwendler said, the various animals in his deer-park were not the least 

 afraid of the bear-cat — not even when it was a stranger in the place. *It 

 was quite a different thing, he said, when last year he introduced a young 

 panther (felis parvus), scarcely half the size of the bear-cat, into the park. 

 Then the whole deer-park was in a commotion, the spotted deer (axis macu- 

 latus) giving their peculiar cry of fear and stamping with their fore-feet ; the 

 fawns seeking the protection of their mothers ; the pheasants taking up the 

 signal ; the black buck scampering to and from with their deep peculiar grunt ; 

 the graceful gazella Indica observing and hissing at short intervals ; the 

 cervulus aureus, at other times quite tame, running in its peculiar hopping 

 style all round the park and barking ; and even the samburs (rusa Aristotelis), 

 large as they are, with tail erect, head thrown up, and lilted foot prepared 

 for battle. 



The above facts prove almost conclusively that the Ailurus fulgens is 

 not carnivorous — at any rate so far as the deer tribe is concerned. 



The President remarked that now that the scheme of a Zoological Gar- 

 den for Calcutta had been taken up by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, 

 its establishment was sure to become a fact, and he hoped Government would 

 soon carry out the project, so as not to be deprived of Mr. Schwendler's 

 valuable assistance. 



