410 Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 



on the origin of the valuable manure called guano, from the sea islands 

 off the coast of Peru. We extract the following passage from it : 



With reference to the opinion entertained by some, that the guano had 

 been accumulating from a period perhaps prior to the origin of the hu- 

 man race, Mr T. translated the following passage from the " Memoriales 

 Riales" of " Garcillasso de la Vega." Lisbon, 1609, p. 102. " On the 

 sea-coast, from below Arequipa as far as Tarapaca, which is more than 

 two hundred leagues of coast, they use no other manure than that of 

 marine birds, which exist on all the coast of Peru, both great and small, 

 and go in flocts perfectly incredible, if not seen. They are reared on 

 some uninhabited islands which exist on that coast, and the manure 

 that they leave is of inconceivable amount. At a distance the hills of it 

 resemble the mounds on some snowy plain. In the time of the Incas 

 there was so much vigilance in guarding these birds, that, during the 

 rearing season, no person was allowed to visit the islands under the 

 pain of death, in order that they might not be frightened and driven 

 from their nests. Neither was it allowed to kill them at any time, either 

 on or off the islands, under the same penalty," Each district or territory 

 also had a portion of these islands allotted to it, the penalties for in- 

 fringement of which were very severe. From this extrardinary care, it is 

 probable that the Incas did not permit any remarkable consumption of this 

 valuable manure beyond the annual addition ; and the consumption dur- 

 ing the depopulation of South America by the Spaniards, could by no means 

 have equalled those annual deposits. Even the greatest thickness of 

 seven to eight hundred feet might, without extravagant calculation, be 

 deposited in about three thousand years, at the rate of two or three inches 

 a-year. The feathers do not appear different from those of birds of the 

 present day. Mr Blake, a member of our society, who has visited these 

 deposits, has a shell found in the guano, very much resembling the Crepi- 

 dulafornicata of this coast, but not in any way fossilized. On this coast 

 it never rains, so that the deposits of manure are not, like those on other 

 coasts, annually washed away. — American Journal of Science and Arts, 

 Vol. xlvi. No. 1. p. 203. 



22. On the Hycena — The traveller, Ignalius Pallme, in his Travels 

 in Kordofan, vindicates the hyaena from the charge of ferocity and 

 cruelty, usually brought against it by writers of Natural History, most 

 of whom assert that the animal is untaraeable. He says : — 



** In the court of a house at Lobeid I saw a hyaena running about 

 quite domesticated. The children of the proprietor teased it, took the 

 meat thrown to it for food out of its jaws, and put their hands even into 

 its throat, without receiving the least injury. When we took our meals 

 in the open air, to enjoy the breeze, as was our general custom during 

 the hot season, this animal approached the table without fear, snapped 

 up the pieces that were thrown to it, like a dog, and did not evince the 

 slightest symptom of timidity. A full-grown hyaena and her two cubs 

 were, on another occasion, brought to me for sale ; the latter were carried 

 in arms, as you might carry a lamb, and were not even muzzled. The 

 old one, it is true, had a rope round its snout, but it had been led a 

 distance of twelve miles by one single man without having offered the 

 slightest resistance. The Africans do not even reckon the hyaena among 

 the wild bea?ts of their country, for they are not afraid of it." — Athe- 

 ntBum. No. 872, p. G41. 



