167 

 ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 



On the existence of Mustaches in the foetus of Dolphins and Porpoises. By 

 M. Emmanuel Rousseau. — Some time since Dr E. Rousseau, anatomical 

 superintendant of the Museum of Natural History of Paris, observed that 

 certain animals, entirely deprived of hair in the adult state, were provided 

 with it on a particular part of their body, during the foetal life. Such are the 

 dolphins and porpoises, which at that time have on the upper lip a line of stiff 

 hairs, prolonged at the sides, and forming a small pair of mustaches. This 

 observation, which does not appear to have been previously made, was 

 recently confirmed by the examination of two foetuses of dolphins, sent to 

 the museum amongst the beautiful collection of M. Dussumier. At the 

 first inspection, M. Rousseau recognized the mustaches in each of the 

 specimens, as in those he had previously seen ; and M. Isidore Geoffroy, and 

 one of the editors of the Annals, have ascertained the accuracy of the fact. 

 Dr Rousseau thinks, that the existence of mustaches is temporary in the 

 dolphins and porpoises, and that they entirely disappear a short time after 

 birth. No traces of them have been found in the specimens, young or adult, 

 preserved in the collections Ann. des Sci. Nat. Nov. 1830. ijm' 



Digestive Organs, Sfc. of the Giraffe. — The liver is nearly oval, without 

 lobes, being only slightly indented at the attachment of its suspensory liga- 

 ment. The gall bladder is small. The ductus choledochus communis and 

 pancreatic duct unite together about 7 inches from the pylorus, into a 

 single canal ^ of an inch in width, and 5^ inches in length, which runs 

 between the muscular and mucous coats of the intestine. The hepatic and 

 cystic ducts join each other at nearly a right angle. — In the urethra there is 

 a small sac with a blind termination, into which the excretory ducts of 

 Cowper's glands open. The urethra is very narrow, and its extremity is 

 united to the prepuce. — Czermack, in Isis, 1830, p. 357. 



On a peculiar Provision in some Sirds for freeing the Plumage from Vermin ; 

 and the general use of the Claws for this purpose. — In the first number of the 

 Journal of the Royal Institution, p. 21, Mr Rennie, in adducing several 

 instances of provision for cleanliness in animals, alludes to the serrated 

 structure of the middle claw of the goatsucker (Caprimulgus Europceus :) 

 " the use of which," he remarks, " seems to have been misunderstood by 

 White of Selborne. 



' If it takes,' says Mr White, * any part of its prey with its foot, as I have 

 the greatest reason to believe it does chafers, (Zantheumia solstitialis, Leach, 

 MS.) I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously 

 furnished with a serrated claw.'* Mr Dillon has recently controverted this 

 opinion ; his observations leading him to suppose that the serratures are 

 employed by the bird to comb its whiskers (vibrissce.)f Mr Swainson, 

 again, a high authority on such a subject, thinks that the fact of an American 

 group of the same birds {CaprimulgidcB,) which have no whiskers to comb, 

 and an Australian group, which have whiskers, but no serratures on the 

 claws, are discordant with Mr Dillon's opinion. ^ "I was, I confess," Mr 

 Rennie continues, " disposed to think Mr Dillon's opinion more plausible than 

 true, and to agree with White, and the learned arguments of Mr Swainson, 

 till I met with some observations of the distinguished American ornithologist, 

 Wilson, upon some of the transatlantic species. In his description of the 

 whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus vociferus,) he says, * the inner edge of the 



* Nat. Hist, of Selborne, i. 160. Ed. Lend, 1825. 



t Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist, ii, 31. i Ibid. iii. 188. 



