124 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



brought over, and mounted by the museum 

 taxidermist, the example thus stuffed figuring 

 amongst the attractions of the Liberian department 

 in the Chicago Exhibition. This specimen is now 

 in the Museum of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences : judging from a photo-engraving of it 

 now in my possession, the taxidermist has made the 

 lep^s much too stilted, although the characteristic 

 inter-orbital and antero-posterior convexities of 

 the head have been correctly reproduced. 



This census practically completes our present 

 knowledge of the pigmy hippopotamus. Con- 

 sidering its moderate size, and the length of time 

 it has been known, one might have expected this 

 little ungulate to have become at least moderately 

 common in the great zoological gardens of Europe, 

 where rarities presumably as difficult to obtain, 

 are frequently exhibited : one may mention as 

 instances the Tasmanian thylacine, the fossa of 

 Madagascar, the snow leopard, the sable antelope, 

 the black rhinoceros, the echidna, the kiang. 

 Moreover, there is good reason for desiring the 

 exhibition of H. liberiensis at an early date. We 

 have seen that the little beast, alas for him ! is 

 succulent, and is hunted because he is good to eat. 

 Considering- the limited range of the animal, this 

 points to eventual extermination. The naturalist 

 remembers with regret how the northern sea-cow, 

 the great auk, and the dodo were relentlessly 



