838 Asiatic Society, [No. 118. 



mounted skins of animals in our Museum may be preserved for an indefinite period, 

 with little more than the same protection which such specimens receive in Europe. 



*' Of the next genus, that of the Gibbons {Hylohates), two highly interesting fresh 

 specimens have been presented by the Right Hon'ble the Governor General, which 

 had died in the park at Barrackpore. One of these is a half-grown female of the 

 Hoolock, or White-browed Gibbon, {H. Hoolock, Harlan, H. Scyrites, Ogilby, and 

 the brown variety H. Choromandus, Ogilby). The specimen is in beautiful con- 

 dition, and if any doubt could exist of the specifical identity of the H. Scyrites and H. 

 Choromandus of Mr, Ogilby, the present individual would remove that doubt, from 

 the intermediateness of its colouring. The other specimen is a still younger female, also 

 in admirable j9e/o^e, of the White-handed Gibbon ( Simla Lar, Linnaeus, but not /f. 

 Lar of Vigors and Horsfield, which applies to H. Agilis ; H. Albimana, Vigors and 

 Horsfleld, /S". Longimana, Schreber, and the brown variety — Pithecus Variegatus, 

 Geoffroy, but not H. Variegatus of MUller, which refers to H, Agilis.) The colour 

 of this specimen is a very pale yellowish brown, and every intermediate shade be- 

 tween yellowish white and deep-black is exhibited by the species, in common with the 

 greater number, if not all, of its congeners; the circumference of the face and the four 

 hands being white invariably. This species of Gibbon is generally brought from Sin- 

 gapore, and according to the most trust-worthy information, is unknown in Sumatra, 

 Java, or Borneo, in each of which islands it is represented by a nearly allied species, 

 respectively peculiar to the island, viz. by H. Agilis in Sumatra, H. Leuciscus in 

 Java, and H. Concolor of Miiller in Borneo ; whether the last-mentioned is identical 

 with the H. Concolor originally described by Harlan, remains to be determined : the 

 present specimen was brought from Moulmein ; and it is doubtless the species referred 

 to by the late Dr. Heifer in Tenasserim, as being " the most common species of its 

 genus in the interior, howling most piteously in the solitary forests :" that gentleman 

 also mentions the Siamang {H. Syndactylus), as having " been found in the southern 

 parts of Tenasserim, up to the 15th degree of north latitude ;" a statement it would 

 be desirable to have confirmed, as this animal was previously supposed to be 

 restricted to Sumatra. Finally, to complete this brief notice of the Gibbons, the re- 

 mainder consist of the Hoolock upon the hills of Assam and Arracan, and the White- 

 cheeked Gibbon, {H. Leucogenys, Ogilby), a species lately characterized from a 

 young individual in the possession of the Zoological Society, and the habitat of which 

 was unknown. My friend and fellow-passenger, Lieut. Beagin, however, of the 2nd 

 Madras Cavalry, recognised the drawings which I possess of this species, as decidedly 

 representing one which he had often seen upon the Malabar ghauts, and forests of the 

 Neelghierries, and which varies as much in shade of colour as the others (the Siamang, 

 perhaps, alone excepted, which has never been observed otherwise than black.) Mr. 

 Beagin had seen and handled a freshly killed specimen of the full-grown male, 

 which taking it under the arms required considerable exertion to lift ; the height was 

 about three feet. Speaking on this subject to Mr, Walter Elliott, that naturalist 

 remarked to me, that he had never heard of such an animal in those parts ; but 

 Mr. Ogilby, in his treatise on the Apes, (published in the Library of Enter- 

 taining Knowledge), states, " We have heard from an officer of high rank and cele- 

 bi-ity that there is unquestionably a real Ape in the forests of the Malabar coast: he 

 had often heard the natives speak of it, and not unfrequently heard its cry, wow-ivoatf 



