12 
THE NATURALISTS’ COMPANION. 
Nature’s Zoological 
C3r^3:»ca.013L. 
Dr. Felix L. Oswald says in the 
Cincinnati Enquirer : Sumatra is 
just four times as large as the State 
of Ohio, and the partial explorations 
ot the west coast prove that it con¬ 
tains twice as many different birds 
and beasts as any other part of 
Southern Asia. There are elephants 
in Ceylon, hut neither tigers nor 
orangoutangs; in Borneo there are 
orangs, but no elephants; in Java 
wild cows, but no larger apes, no 
crocodiles or rhinoceros. Sumatra 
has them all, and, beside, a flying 
night inonkty (the winged lemur), 
several species of-gigantic frugiver- 
ous, bats, and two varieties of Grib- 
bon apes, creatures whose long arms 
and acrobatic talents make their 
capture so difficult that they are 
rarely seen outside of their native 
forests. The jungles swarm with 
pheasants and tropical pigeons, and 
the mountains with deer,wild goats 
and panther cats. As a hunting 
ground for naturalists, Sumatra 
would surpass Brazil about as much 
as Brazil surpasses the sandy pine 
forests of North Carolina, where 
only the drum of an occasional wood¬ 
pecker breaks the wide spread silence 
In fifty years trom now, when the 
United States will have a hundred 
zoological gardens and as many first- 
class museums, their zoological sup¬ 
ply-station will probably be the city 
of Palembang, in Southern Sumatra. 
Siamang apes can be bought there 
for ten guilders (about |4,50); wan- 
deroos,or long-maned baboans,with 
black heads and white hands, for 
six guilders;piebian monkeys for a 
guilder apiece. The naturalist, 
Bottger, who visited the place in the 
interest ol an A^ustrian scientific as¬ 
sociation, had an interview with a 
hunter who offered to catch three 
young orangs in as many days. 
The old ones are rather hard to get. 
The W ohm’s House.— Their holes 
are often dug three or tour feet deep, 
or in cold countries as much as sev¬ 
en or eight feet under the surface. 
These holes go straight down or in 
a slightly slanting direction. At 
the bottom there is a small round 
room,with perhaps a few little stones 
in it, for the worms do not like to 
lie close against the cold earth. 
During hot, dry summer weather,or 
in the cold frost of winter,the worms 
remain down at the bottom of their 
holes, curled up singly, or three or 
four may be rolled up in a ball to¬ 
gether. The whole length of the 
narrow hole has a lining of dark 
mould. Near the top, tor a few 
inches,the lining is made of leaves 
flattened and pasted all around' 
against the earth. In that softly 
lined part the worm likes to lie all 
day in damp or cold weather, with 
his head just concealed beneath the 
level of the ground, or poking up 
trom the surface. Through this 
habit of lying at the top of their 
little homes, with their heads stuck 
out at the door, they are easily 
caught and pulled up by the bird. 
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