464 Notices of various Mammalia. [No. 150. 



hoolock as inhabitants of that island (?). In Arracan, however, the 

 Hoolockis the prevalent species of Gibbon, and extends thence over all 

 the hill ranges of Sylhet and Assam;* while the lar, or White- 

 handed species, is found southward to the Straits. The Society has 

 lately received a pale specimen of the Hoolock from Capt. Phayre 

 (Senr. Asst. to the Commissioner of Arracan, and stationed at Sando- 

 way), which closely approaches to that in the Zoological Society's 

 Museum, which was described as a distinct species by the name //. 

 choromandus, being, however, a trifle darker, and considerably darker 

 than the very pale example from Assam noticed in X, 839. Another 

 Hoolock in this Museum is again much darker than the Arracan 

 specimen, and we have retained a third of the usual intense black 

 colour all over, with the exception of the constant white band across 

 the forehead. 



According to Mr. J. Owen, who resided upwards of two years 

 among the savage Nagas and Abors who inhabit the wooded moun- 

 tain ranges to the eastward of Upper Assam, the Hoolock abounds in 

 those upland forests, associating in societies of 100 or 150 individuals, 

 the combined noise of which may be heard to an immense distance. 

 In genera), they keep to the tops of the highest Oolung and Mackoi 

 trees (Dipterocarpi), to the fruit of which they are very partial ; but 

 on several occasions, when emerging from a foot-path through the 

 dense forest into the open ravines formed by the action of the moun- 

 tain rapids, Mr. Owen mentions having come suddenly upon a party 

 of them washing and frolicing in the current, who immediately took 

 alarm and retreated into the jungle: but in one instance, as he was 

 proceeding solitarily along a newly made road through the forest, he 

 found himself surrounded by a large body of them, impelled perhaps as 

 much by curiosity at his European dress and appearance, as by re- 

 sentment at the intrusion of a stranger upon their domain ; the trees 

 on either side were full of them, menacing with their gestures, and 

 uttering shrill cries; and as he passed on, several descended from the 

 trees behind, and followed him along the road ; and he feels sure that 

 they would soon have attacked him, had not his superior speed on the 



* It is even found in some parts of Mymunseng. Buchanan Hamilton's MSS.: 

 upon the authority of Mr. Dick, formerly Judge and Magistrate of Sylhet. 



