1 98 Journal of Iravd and Natural History. 



Death of Professor Van der Hoeven, of Leyden. — We little 



thought when with natural gratification we commenced our scientific reports in 

 last number of this Journal, with a letter from Professor Van der Hoeven, of 

 Leyden, that before the reader could peruse his letter, the hand that traced the 

 lines should be cold in the dust. His letter was dated 19th February, and he 

 died on i8th March. It was probably his last contribution to literature and 

 science. It was by his great work, "The Hand-Book of Zoology," that 

 Professor Van der Hoeven was best known to English naturalists — his past 

 works, his own brief notice of works in progress in Holland, in most of which 

 he bore a greater or lesser share, shew what a loss our Dutch friends have 

 sustained by his decease. 



Birds Bred last year in the Zoological G-ardens, Regent's . 

 Park. — Mr Bartlett, the superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, in giving 

 an account of the success of the Society in rearing their fowls, gives the follow- 

 ing list of the birds that had bred in the gardens during the past year: (i), 

 Those which had bred in former years — the Impeyan pheasant, the Japanese 

 pheasant, the Cheer pheasant, Swinhoe's pheasant, lineated pheasant, purple 

 pheasant, black -backed Kaleege, wild turkey, Bankiva jungle fowls, Tallegalle, 

 the Eurypyga (the so-called sun bittern, although it has nothing to do with the 

 bitterns), the Turquoisine parrakeet, the dusky duck, Bahama duck, Carolina 

 duck, nuldy shieldrake. New Zealand shieldrake, ruddy-headed goose, ash- 

 headed goose. {2), A number which, so far as known, have never bred in 

 captivity before, either in the Zoological Society's Gardens or anywhere else, 

 viz. : Pallas's eared pheasant, the barr-tailed pheasant, the rufous tinamou, the 

 common cassowary, the black kite, and the black crested cardinal. The most 

 interestmg of these is the rufous tinamou. Non-ornithological readers may 

 have seen a veiy curious and most beautiful bird's egg from South America. 

 It is about the size and shape of a small hen's egg, of the colour of mud, and 

 with a most brilliant polish. It is like polished marble, of the colour of Lon- 

 don clay or some limestones. That is the egg of the tinamou. There are 

 several species of them, and the genus seems to stands between the bustards and 

 the rails, but probably nearer the former. The most extraordinary thing in its 

 breeding, however, is that it is the male which sits upon the eggs. He attended 

 to the eggs of two females that both layed in the nest on which he sat ; but he 

 could not have sat upon all the eggs that they layed, for Mr Bartlett mentioned 

 that in the short space of six weeks the two hens layed eighty-five eggs. The 

 rufous tinamou is one of the lar_u;er species of that genus. 



First discovery of Trichina in Pork. — In answer to a question put 

 by a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia at one of its 

 meetings last year, whether he had noticed trichina in pork. Professor Leidy of 

 Philadelphia stated that he had been the first to discover this parasite in the 

 hog, the discovery having been made twenty years ago, as may be seen by 



