259 



Perhaps the saddest sight of all was the cage of the wonderfully 

 intelligent Macaw. The poor bird was stretched upon his back, 

 clinging to the wooden rail with both wings and beak. 



The spectators outside say that no sound was heard from any of 

 them during the conflagration, from which we may infer that they 

 were either speedily suffocated by the smoke, or else were cowed at 

 once by the element the wild beast fears so much. Their skins were 

 damaged by the combined action of heat and the water used in 

 quenching the fire, but the bodies were not otherwise injured. They 

 were obtained for the Society from the agent of the Conway Fire 

 Insurance Company. Through the kindness of Dr. Holmes, Profes- 

 sor of Anatomy in Harvard University, the dissecting room of the 

 Medical College was placed at my disposal, for the accommodation of 

 part of them, and the students of the Institution willingly undertook 

 their dissection. The remainder of the collection our President was 

 obliging enough to take into his private dissecting room at Cam- 

 bridge. 



The Society may consider itself fortunate in having secured so 

 valuable an acquisition to its already extensive osteological collection. 

 Such an opportunity will probably never occur again. It raises this 

 department of the cabinet far above any in the country in importance, 

 and will enable us to grace our new halls with an almost perfect col- 

 lection of skeletons of the large cats of the Old and New Worlds. 

 The collection consists of the following specimens : — 



1. Fine male Lion, 5 years old; shipped from Delagoa Bay, 

 Africa. Dimensions, 8 feet to end of tail, 6 feet 4 inches to root of 

 same. 



2. Very large female, the sister and mate of above. Dimensions, 

 total length, 6 feet 10 inches. 



3. Lioness from Cape of Good Hope; 9 years old. [Given to 

 Prof Wyman.] 



4. Male Jaguar, from South America ; 4 years old, 6 feet to end 

 of tail. 



5. Female, mate of same. [Given to Prof. Agassiz.] 



6. Young Bengal Tiger, female ; 2 years old, 7 feet 4 in. to tip of 

 tail. 



7. Hunting Leopard, or Cheetah, female ; 8 years old, from Asia. 

 Had the habit of sucking her own nipples. 



8. Young Leopard from Asia ; 2 years old — male. 



9. Cougar; 3 years old — male. South America. 



10. Ocelot; 6 or 7 years old. From Central America. Female. 



11. Civet cat, — Viverra zibetlm ; 6 years old, female. Asia. 



12. Spotted or laughing Hyena ; 8 years old. Cape of Good Hope 

 Male. 



