Jan. 1, 1S67.] 



HARDWICKE'S' SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 









Fig. 1. 



I~N the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1SG6, 

 -*- appeared au article entitled, " Notes ou a young 

 Crocodile found in a Farm-yard at Over-Norton, 

 Oxfordshire," by George K." Wright, E.S.A. As 

 the subject may be of interest to many of our 

 readers, we have extracted from the article in 

 question, and the publishers have kindly placed the 

 illustrations at our disposal. 



" Whilst on a visit in Oxfordshire, at the farm- 

 house of a then tenant of mine at Over-Norton, 

 near Chipping Norton, I first saw the little reptile 

 already referred to, in a glass case, where other 

 specimens of animals and birds were well arranged 

 and kept, the whole having been preserved by my 

 tenant, Mr. William Phillips, who is well known in 

 that part of the world as a keen sportsman and good 

 naturalist. On noticing at once the peculiarities of 

 the little animal, I asked Mr. Phillips how and 

 where it was found, when to my great surprise, as 

 well as increasing interest, he told me, as well as I 

 can now recollect, the following story of its dis- 

 covery : — 



"He said, that one morning, in the year 1S5G 

 or '7, I can hardly now say for certain which, as he 

 was walking in his farm-yard at Over-Norton, his 

 attention was attracted by the sight of, as he at first 

 thought, a lizard, lying in the gutter, evidently but 

 lately killed, its bowels protruding from a wound 

 in its belly. Upon, however, taking it up, he soon 

 discovered that the animal was not a lizard, and he 

 immediately asked his labourers, who were close by, 

 unstacking some faggots for the use of the house, if 

 they knew anything about it. The answer was that 

 they had killed it as it ran out of the stack of 

 wood, I think the day before ; and on Mr. Phillips 

 expressing his regret at their having done so without 

 bringing it to him alive, they replied they could 

 easily get him another, as at the place where the 

 wood was cut, a few miles from the farm, near to 

 Chipping Norton Common, and not far from the 

 village of Salford, at the ' Minny ' Pool— which I 

 presume is a shortened form of Minnow— they saw 



them frequently in the water and on the land, and 

 often running up the trees. Upon this statement, 

 Mr. Phillips offered his wondering workmen a guinea 

 for another specimen, adding the remark that they 

 had killed an animal of a most rare character, and 

 one he thought, in spite of all they said, they would 

 have some difficulty in meeting with again. Mr. 

 Phillips then proceeded to preserve the little reptile, 

 which he did by carefully skinning it, and setting it 

 in the position I subsequently saw it, and which 

 the drawing annexed faithfully depicts. Seeing how 



Fig. 2. 



much interest I took in the affair, Mr. Phillips pre- 

 sented the little animal to me to bring to London, 

 as I told him I should be able, through some of my 

 friends in town, to find out more about it. My 

 friend in reply remarked that it had already been to 

 London, and been shown at the British Museum, 

 but to whom he could not say ; and that the opinion 

 he had received of it was to the effect that it was a 

 young crocodile, and had very likely been dropped in 

 a rain shower, or perhaps had escaped from some 

 travelling menagerie. As both these ideas or sug- 

 gestions were in my mind entirely out of the question, 

 and as Mr. Phillips strengthened my belief, especially 

 as regarded the latter suggestion, by saying that the 



