A Catalogue of the Mammalia in the Museum of the Hon. East-India Company

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J. & H. Cox, 1851 - Mammals - 212 pages

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Page 125 - they become very tame. One lived for two years in my possession. He was brought up in the nursery with the children ; and, when admitted to my table, as was frequently the case, gave a proof of his taste by refusing to eat any fruit but mangosteens, or to drink any wine but champagne.
Page 135 - ... strangers it retains its original mistrust, which in mature age is scarcely reclaimable. In a state of nature it lives singly or in pairs, fiercely attacking intruders of its own species. When several are confined together they fight each other, or jointly attack and destroy the weakest. The natural food is mixed insectivorous and frugivorous. In confinement individuals may be fed exclusively on either, though preference is evinced for insects ; and eggs, fish, and earth-worms are equally relished....
Page 30 - They direct their course, by an unerring instinct, to the forests, villages, and plantations, occasioning incalculable mischief, attacking and devouring indiscriminately every kind of fruit, from the abundant and useful...
Page 25 - ... reason, his thick fur, which we rarely see on animals in these tropical climates : to me, who not only constantly fed him, but bathed him twice a week in water accommodated to the seasons, and whom he clearly...
Page 26 - ... victim with both his fore-paws, but held it in one of them, while he devoured it. For other purposes, and sometimes even for that of holding his food, he used all his paws indifferently as hands, and frequently grasped with one of them the higher part of his ample cage, while his three others were severally engaged at the bottom of it ; but the posture of which he seemed fondest, was to cling with all four of them to the...
Page 114 - On ascending these mountains, the traveller scarcely fails to meet with our animal, which, from its peculiarities, is universally known to the inhabitants of these elevated tracts ; while to those of the plains, it is as strange as an animal from a foreign country.
Page 26 - ... of his neck and limbs enabled him to perform very completely; he was then ready for a slight breakfast, after which he commonly took a short nap, but when the sun was quite set, he recovered all his vivacity.
Page 123 - As far as its manners have yet been developed, it appears to be, with regard to man at least, one of the most playful and good tempered of beasts, soliciting the attention of almost every visitor by throwing its clumsy body into a variety of antic postures, and when noticed, tumbling head over heels with every symptom of delight. But towards animals it exhibits no such mildness of temper; and it is curious to observe the cat-like eagerness with which it watches the motions of any of the smaller among...
Page 27 - As to his country," says the author last quoted, " the first of the species that I saw in India was in the district of Tipra, properly Tripura, whither it had been brought, like mine, from the Garrow Mountains; and Dr. Anderson informs me that it is found in the woods on the coast of Coromandel : another has been sent to a member of our society from one of the eastern isles ; and though the Loris may be a native of Silan, yet I cannot agree with M. de Buffon that it is the minute, sociable, and docile...
Page 26 - ... climates : to me, who not only constantly fed him, but bathed him twice a week in water accommodated to the seasons, and whom he clearly distinguished from others, he was at all times grateful; but when I disturbed him in winter he was usually indignant, and seemed to reproach me with the uneasiness which he felt, though no possible precautions had been omitted to keep him in a proper degree of warmth. At all times he was pleased with being stroked on the head and throat, and frequently suffered...

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