ZOOLOGY. 345 



Accompanying the above \vere specimens of various rare birds, 

 among them the Stryops, Neomorpha, Apteryx Auslralis, and A. Oweni. 



REMAINS OF THE DODO. 



THERE has recently been discovered in the museum at Prague 

 another veritable skull of the Dodo, the existence of which has hither- 

 to been unsuspected. This is the third instance in which remains of 

 this extinct bird have been discovered among the rubbish of European 

 museums. 



CURIOUS HABITS OF BIRDS. 



THE result of some curious investigations in relation to certain 

 habits of birds, undertaken by M. Dureau de la JMalle, of Paris, has 

 recently been published. He was anxious to ascertain at what hour 

 different birds began their morning song ; he therefore, from the 1st 

 of May to the Gth of July, made observations, which he regularly 

 published. It appears that for thirty years this vigilant naturalist 

 went to bed at seven o'clock in the evening, and rose at midnight, 

 during spring and summer, and that this habit was for scientific pur- 

 poses. It seems that the concert is opened about one o'clock by the 

 chaffinch, and that the sparrow is the laziest bird, not leaving his rest 

 until five o'clock. In the intermediate hours, at marked intervals, 

 which M. de la Malle has carefully noted down, other birds commence 

 their natural melody. He has shown, on more than one occasion, 

 that the different birds have mistaken artificial light for the dawning 

 of day, and that a solar lamp has awakened the little choristers. 



HIPPOPOTAMUS IN ENGLAND. 



THE first living specimen of the hippopotamus ever imported into 

 Europe has, during the past year, been presented by the Pacha of 

 Egypt to the Queen, and by her to the Zoological Gardens of London. 

 The animal in question was captured in August, 1849, on a remote 

 branch of the Nile, 1,350 miles above Cairo. The hunters, having 

 previously wounded its mother, had their attention attracted to the 

 thick bushes on the river's bank, in which the young animal was con- 

 cealed. When discovered, the calf made a rush to the river, and 

 nearly escaped, owing to the slipperiness of its skin, and was only se- 

 cured by one of the men striking the boat-hook into its flank. The 

 hippopotamus is now only ten months old, and measures 7 feet long 

 and 6 A- in girth at the middle of the barrel-shaped trunk, which is 

 supported clear of the ground on very short and thick legs. The 

 naked hide covering the broad back and sides is of a dark, India-rub- 

 ber color, impressed by numerous fine wrinkles crossing each other, 

 but disposed almost transversely. When Prof. Owen first saw the 

 beast, it had just left its bath, and he observed a minute drop of a 

 glistening secretion exuding from the pores, which are dispersed over 

 the whole integument, and which the animal is provided with for the 



