ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
107 
Contribution, Number 146. 
A NEW VENEZUELAN COLLECTION* 
By William Beebe. 
NE of the joys of a scientific explorer 
is the hospitality and whole-hearted 
kindliness which is encountered every¬ 
where in out-of-the-way places. Far more rare 
is the fulfillment of promises to collect and 
send specimens after one has left. It is only 
human nature to lose interest, especially when 
one is busy in another field of work. Mr. 
Rupert Legge, Superintendent of the Barber 
Asphalt Company at the Pitch Lake in Vene¬ 
zuela, is one of those men, so capable that he 
can carry on his own responsibilities and at 
the same time gather a very worth-while col¬ 
lection of living birds, mammals and reptiles. 
After leaving the Tropical Research Station 
in British Guiana a year ago I and my staff 
spent a month in Venezuela as the guests of 
Mr. Paul Munoz and the. Barber Asphalt 
‘Department of Tropical Research, Contribution No. 146. 
Company, and since then Mr. Legge has as¬ 
sembled the following forty-seven living crea¬ 
tures, which he has just sent on one of the 
company’s own steamers and which are now 
on exhibition at the New York Zoological 
Park. There are seven mammals, eight birds, 
thirty-one reptiles and one fish, as follows: 
1 Pileated Tinamou . Crypturus sold soui 
2 Red-underwing Doves . Leptoptila rufaxilla 
2 Chachalacas . Ortalis ruficauda 
2 Sun Bitterns .. Eurypyga helias 
1 Large-billed Hawk. . . .Rupornis magnirostris magnirostris 
2 Ring-necked Monkeys. Cebus capucinus 
1 Puma . Puma concolor concolor 
1 Striped-tail Dog . Urocyon eurostictus 
2 Prehensile-tailed Porcupines. Coendau prehensilis 
1 Paca . Agouti paca paca 
1 Mata-mata Turtle . Chelys fimbriata 
6 Caimans . Caiman sclerops 
1 Tree Boa . Corallus cookii 
17 Boa constrictors . Boa constrictor 
1 Anaconda .. Eunectes murinus 
2 Land tortoises . Testudo tabulata 
2 Soft-shelled Turtle . 
1 Electric Eel . Electrophorus electricus 
Of especial interest is the large mata-mata 
turtle, the electric eel, the tinamou and the 
striped-tail dog. 
Breeding of the Gibbon in Captivity. —In¬ 
stances of the breeding of the higher apes in 
captivity are sufficiently rare to make the fol¬ 
lowing worthy of record. It has just come to 
me in the “Journal of the Natural Llistory 
Society of Siam.” 
Mr. A. W. Ogilvie writes that in April, 1914, 
he turned loose in his compound at Prae, North 
Siam, five Siamese Gibbons ( Hylobates lar ), 
two whites and three black. As one of the 
black ones shortly became savage, it had to 
be shot. The others lived together in peace 
and in May, 1920, one of the white ones gave 
birth to a young one. The father was one 
of the black gibbons, and the two remained 
constantly associated together. They chased 
the remaining two from the trees in which 
they were accustomed to spend their time, and 
did not allow them to enter the compound 
after the birth of the young one. 
In September, 1922, the young gibbon, al¬ 
though over two years old and quite able to 
take care of itself, still clung to the mother 
whenever she swung rapidly from tree to tree, 
was still nursed by her and has never been 
seen to take any solid food.— William Beebe. 
The Business Woman’s Badge of Gentility .— 
It is to be “a proper fur piece.” It was so 
decided on September 6, in connection with the 
coming fashion show for business women. The 
New York League for Business and Profes¬ 
sional Women is staging the show, and what it 
says goes. But really is this a new idea? 
Decidedly it is not. For at least five years, fur, 
or a “fur piece,” be it ever so humble, has 
been the badge of gentility of every New York 
woman who has been physically able to set foot 
beyond her own threshold. It may be black 
fox, or mink, or polyglot “seal,” or “muskrat,” 
or skunk, ’coon or ’possum, but the fur badge 
has been there. And as between the cheapest of 
fur and the best of wool, there are those who 
hold that the wool has the best of the argument. 
