from their great timidity and awkwardness of progression on a comparatively flat surface. The first we shall mention is a new species from the continent of India,

THE HOOLOCK.

Hylobates hoolock.-HARLOW.

PLATE III.

Simia hoolock, Harlow, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume iv. N. S. Page 52.

THIS curious species was first noticed by a wellknown American naturalist, and is figured in the work above quoted; it wants the callosities on the hips, and from its nearer approach in proportions to the orangs, would take precedence in our system of the other Gibbons.

It is a native of the Garrow Hills, in the vicinity of Goalpara, in British India. The first description of it is by Dr Harlow, taken from living specimens and interesting letters which accompanied them, and detailed what had been observed regarding them in a wild state. A specimen has lately been added to the Museum of Edinburgh, which has served for our illus

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tration, to which we have added the letters of Dr Burrough to its American describer.

It is strongly characterised as distinct from the other long-armed orangs or Gibbons. In form, size, and proportion, it is most closely allied to the female of the active Gibbon, H. agilis of F. Cuvier; but is very different in colours and markings, especially the young individuals of the two species, which differ totally in these respects. The male and female resemble each other in the present species; but the sexes of the active Gibbon are different in size and colour.

The specimen in the Edinburgh Collection agrees nearly with that described by Dr Harlow.

The colour of the young, according to Dr Harlow, is blackish brown, sprinkled with gray on the hands and feet; the buttocks are grayish; a tuft of the same colour extends along the middle of the front of the body; the band of gray over the eyes of the adult, is generally interrupted in the middle of the forehead by a line of black hairs, which is absent in the young one; the band is broader in the latter, in proportion of seven-tenths to four-tenths. In this individual, about half the size of the adult, a remarkable difference was observed in the relative proportions of the arm and fore-arm. In the young animal, the fore-arm is shorter than the arm—a fact at variance with the proportions of those parts, not only in the orangs, but in all the race of adult Simia. In the adult, the arm and fore

arm are within one inch two-tenths of being equal in length.

The dentition of this species nearly agrees with that of its congeners; but is remarkable in the length of

We now add the interesting letter of Dr Burrough accompanying the specimens described by Dr Harlow.

"The specimens of the orang-outang or Gibbons, furnished you, were obtained by me during my late excursion into the interior of Bengal. They were presented to me by Captain Alexander Davidson, of the Honourable East India Company, stationed at Goalpara, situate on the Burrampooter river, in Assam. This district of country was formerly attached to the Burmese empire, but at present is in possession of the

East India Company, and constitutes the north-eastern limits of their territory in this quarter.

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"The orang, of which I am now to speak, called by the Assamese Hoolock,' is to be met with on the Garrow Hills, in the vicinity of Goalpara, between latitudes 25° and 28° north; and the specimens brought to this country by me, were taken within a few miles of the town of Goalpara. The full grown one, which at this time you have prepared, was in my possession, alive, from the month of January to May, when it died from a blow it received across the lumbar region, inadvertently inflicted with a small stick by one of my servants at Calcutta. They inhabit more particularly the lower hills, not being able to endure the cold of those ranges of the Garrows of more than 4 or 500 feet elevation. Their food, in the wild state, consists, for the most part, of fruits common only to the jungle in this district of country; and they are particularly fond of the seeds and fruits of that sacred tree of India, called the Peopul-tree, and which, on the Garrow Hills, attains a very large size. They likewise take of some species of grass, and also the tender twigs and leaves of the Peopul and other trees, which they chew, swallow the juice thereof, and reject the indigestible part. They are easily tamed; and when first taken show no disposition to bite unless provoked to anger, and even then manifest a reluctance to defend themselves, preferring to retreat into some corner rather than attack their enemy. They walk erect; and,