132 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



displayed by all races of man when compared with even the highest 

 apes, Filippi sees a line of demarcation between man and the lower 

 animals, " a distinction which has rather more value than that unfor- 

 tunate little hippocampus minor about which so much has been said, — 

 a distinction which may be physically undeterminable, but which has 

 more force than a whole series of sophisms." Naturalists generally, 

 however, will not be found to follow the professor to his conclusions, 

 when he says, " In fine, we shall not be guilty of an indiscretion if we 

 force a little more the hand of this dispenser of honours (Zoology) : 

 let us seek boldly for the investiture of a kingdom ; an internal voice 

 tells us plainly enough that we deserve it." 



The habits of the higher quadrumana, as observed in a state of 

 nature, are too little known, and every contribution is valuable. 

 Lieut.-Col. Tickell has contributed to the Asiatic Society some account 

 of the Gibbon of Tennasserim (Hylobates Lar), found abundantly in 

 the forests of that province. They ascend the hills to 3,500 feet, but 

 not higher, and range in parties of from eight to twenty, of all ages. 

 Their howls are heard for miles round, commencing at sunrise and 

 becoming silent about 9 a.m., after which they are engaged in feeding 

 on fruit, young leaves, buds and shoots, and insects, except for which 

 they do not willingly come to the ground. When approached they sit 

 close in thick tufts of foliage so as to be quite safe from the shot of 

 the sportsman, and even if forced from their concealment, their extreme 

 agility, swinging themselves from branch to branch with their long 

 arms, shaking the boughs all round, and flinging themselves from pro- 

 digious heights into denser foliage, renders it extremely difficult to get 

 a shot at them. It is, on the whole, a very gentle and peaceable 

 animal. The female has one at a birth — two are as rare as human 

 twins — and the young one sticks to its mother's body for about seven 

 months. So entirely does it confine itself to its hands for locomotion 

 about the trees, that it holds anything it may have to carry, by its 

 feet. It drinks by scooping up the water by its long, narrow hand, 

 thus conveying to the mouth a miserably small quantity at a time. 



As exhibiting the rapid acclimatization and increase of some animals, 

 it may be mentioned that M. Miiller of Faroe, a member of the Danish 

 Parliament, states that in 1854 or 1855, two pairs of hares were intro- 

 duced into Stromoe, in Faroe, from Norway, and they have increased 

 so rapidly that there are thousands now upon the island. One may 

 shoot twenty in a day upon the hills, and it will be impossible to 

 exterminate them. On the other hand, the same gentleman has 

 several times tried to import Ptarmigan from Iceland, but hitherto 

 without success. It appears that they cannot live more than two or 

 three days, when captured. Eggs have proved unsuccessful also, the 

 greater part having been sat upon. 



The ' Courrier des Sciences ' lately contained some curious and 

 valuable statistics concerning the colours of the vipers caught at 

 Fort Bourbon in Martinique. No less than 432 of these venomous 

 snakes were killed during the year, the females being in the propor- 

 tion of two to seven. Thirty-eight was the highest number of eggs 



