62 



Zoological Society. 



" The same gentleman is well acquainted with the Semnopithecvs 

 Johnii, which I observe is incidentally noticed in Harkness's work on 

 the Aborigines of the Neilgherry hills, p. 61. This species is com- 

 mon enough in the depths of the forest, but never approaches the 

 houses like the IZntellus." 



Mr. Blyth is also informed by Lieut. Beagin of the existence of a 

 true Ibex, upon the Neilgherries, with long and knotty horns, curved 

 backwards, and having a considerable beard, in which characters it 

 differs from the Himalayan Ibex. u It keeps to the loftiest and most 

 inaccessible crags, like the other Ibices. He has seen it repeatedly, 

 in troops of a dozen or more individuals, and often endeavoured to 

 obtain a specimen, but without success." 



" The Kemas hylocrius, Ogilby, or ' Jungle Sheep,' (identified 

 from one of my drawings,) is very generally, it appears, found in the 

 hilly jungles of Peninsular India, keeping to the thick cover, and 

 always met with solitarily, or in pairs. It is a very timid and shy 

 animal, and when frightened utters a bleat like that of the domestic 

 Sheep. Both sexes possess horns, those of the female being smaller ; 

 and indeed this sex is rudely figured in one of General Hardwicke's 

 drawings in the British Museum, as the ' Warry-a-too' of the Cha- 

 tagon Hills ; besides which, this is probably the species indicated as 

 the wild Sheep of Tenasserim of Capt.Low." [Annals, vol. iii. p. 258.] 



" I shall now call your attention to some animals of North Africa, 

 very good descriptions of many of which, obligingly furnished to me 

 by Mr. Crowther (of the Queen's 63rd regiment), I have easily re- 

 cognised as referring to known species ; but there are several which 

 are certainly new to naturalists, and among them two very fine Bo- 

 vine animals, which the Society would do well to write about to 

 their correspondents in that quarter. As Mr. Crowther described to 

 me the Bubalis and the White Oryx, which are often designated 

 * wild cattle,' it must not be supposed that those animals are alluded 

 to, as indeed is clear enough from the somewhat elaborate descrip- 

 tions, and from the roughly- drawn sketches of both animals, from 

 memory, which I enclose to assist those descriptions. These sketches 

 will, at any rate, give some idea of the sort of animal, and go far to 

 prove their distinctness from any which we are acquainted with. 



"The ' Sherif al Wady' (or River-chief) stands six feet and up- 

 wards at its elevated withers. General form Bisontine ; the carcass 

 somewhat narrow, with flakes or rolls of fat on the sides of the neck ; 

 the limbs fine-boned and rather long, being terminated by compa- 

 ratively small neat hoofs ; the succentorial rather long ; tail short, 

 with its tuft of frizzled hair not reaching to the houghs. Head, it 

 would seem, much like that of ordinary cattle, with small pointed 

 ears, generally borne pendent, and naked of hair internally and to- 

 wards the tip, which are delicate pinkish flesh-colour ; eyes small 

 and dark ; the horns thick, cylindrical, smooth till towards their 

 base, where they are a little rugose, and directed almost vertically 

 upwards from the sides of the forehead ; their colour dark, and length 

 about a foot and a half. The character of the coat approaches that 

 of Highland cattle in Britain, but is smoother toward the under 



