106 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



normally feed on tobacco. Monkeys, as is well known to the 

 frequenters of menageries, are exceedingly fond of the end of a 

 cigar, and an elephant has been seen gravely to accept such an 

 oifering ; but one would have supposed that the amount of nicotine 

 in a pinch of snuff was enough to make a mouse unwell. The 

 indifference of these mice to the toxic action of tobacco, calls to 

 mind the similar indifference on the part of pigeons (rodents are 

 like birds in many things) to the toxic action of opium in the 

 largest doses, as lately noticed by Dr. Weir Michell. 



Among the rarer and more interesting forms noticed by M. 

 Fatio as still existing, or as having existed — for he notices the 

 contents of the quaternary deposits in Switzerland — are the 

 Bear (Jlrsus arctos), the Wolf (^Canis lupus'), the Wild Cat 

 (^Felis catus), the Lynx (^Fells lynx), the Bouquetin or Ibex 

 (^Capra ibex), the Chamois {Capella rufricapra), and the Stag 

 (^Cervus elaphus). With regard to this last, it appears that, 

 eighty years since, very jfine specimens inhabited the Swiss valleys ; 

 now it only appears when driven from the German forests lying 

 to the north ; its remains are found in quaternary deposits. The 

 fallow-deer is represented neither in the present nor in the quater- 

 nary fauna ; the Roebuck, or Chevreuil, is the only cervine species 

 still inhabiting the country. Wolves, lynxes, and wild cats are 

 not uncommon in the forests of the Jura ; but the lynx has not 

 been found in the quaternary deposits, which is noteworthy, since 

 Dr. Ransom, of Nottingham, has found it in England in snch 

 beds. 



The bear is commonest in the Grrisons; every year there is 

 some bear-hunting to be done in these wild and elevated valleys. 

 The ibex, though no longer found in the Swiss ' Alps, occurs 

 in the immediately adjacent territory of Lombardy ; where, 

 however, it is now strictly preserved. The ibex of the Alps, of 

 the Pyrenees, of Siberia, and of Crete, each have very distinctive 

 characters, in the direction and length of their horns, but are 

 hardly to be considered as distinct species. Some naturalists, 

 however, disting-uish a second species in Spain, as JEgycei^os 

 Hispanicus, occurring farther south than the so-called JEgyceros 

 Fyrenaicus. The domesticated Capra hircus, has no doubt 

 largely taken the place of the indigenous ibex ; natural hybrids 

 between the two are not uncommon. The industrious Swiss have 

 sometimes exhibited to curious tourists an eccentric specimen of 

 the common goat as a living idex. M. Fatio mentions such an 



