I04 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



the dog (a young individual) was stated to be fifty 

 pounds. 



The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons 

 contains an interesting relic (No. 522 in catalogue) 

 of the famous hunter, Roualeyn Gordon Gumming. 

 It is the skull of a hunting-dog formerly in the 

 collection which he exhibited at the Ghinese Gallery 

 during 1850-55, and is probably that of the individual 

 which he shot on February 16, 1844, in the country 

 between the Vaal and Riet Rivers. This was one 

 of a pack of four which had driven a blue wildebeest 

 into a pool near which Gumming lay ambushed. 

 "The hound got the bullet throught his heart" says 

 Gumming ; and since the present skull is uninjured 

 (thus at least not shot through the brain) we may 

 assume it to be identical with that of the specimen 

 obtained on that occasion. It has been very beauti- 

 fully prepared, the bones shining with an ivory 

 lustre; the occipital crest is not wholly in the 

 median line, but runs forward from left to right. 

 Another interesting exhibit at Lincoln's Inn Fields 

 is the skeleton of a hunting-dog which, presented to 

 the London Zoological Gardens on February 15, 

 1 87 1, lived for more than four years in the uncertain 

 climate of the metropolis. It is highly creditable 

 that so delicate a beast, used to the open veldt, should 

 have been kept so long in captivity. At Dublin 

 the Cape hound, like the lion, does well, and no less 

 than six litters of puppies were obtained from a pair 



