NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 43 



A few years only have elapsed since the giraffe has 

 been made familiar to modern Europeans, and in no 

 country have so many been kept together as in the British 

 islands. In the Garden of the Zoological Society they 

 have bred regularly and well, and the offspring, with 

 one exception, have lived and thriven. Still there are 

 three huge African forms which have never yet made 

 their appearance in that extensive and noble vivarium — 

 the African elephant, the hippopotamus, and the African 

 rhinoceros, of which last there are several species. By 

 the enterprise of the society, aided by the prudent zeal 

 of Mr. Mitchell, we may soon have the satisfaction 0£ 

 beholding the two first of these gigantic pachyderms in 

 the Garden at the Regent's Park. 



And here we cannot but congratulate those who 

 delight in zoology — and who, now-a-days, does not? — 

 upon the happy change which has passed over that 

 noble and now well-conducted establishment, since Mr. 

 Mitchell, favourably known for his attainments in that 

 branch of science, and gifted with the command of a 

 ready and accurate pencil, has held the office of secretary. 

 A healthy and comfortable air pervades the place. The 

 habits of the animals are studied, and confinement made 

 as little irksome as possible. Communications are opened 

 ■v\T.th foreign powers, and new forms continually flow in, 

 consequent upon a wise liberality. 



I am just returned from visiting the greyhounds about 

 to be sent by the Zoological Society to Abbas Pasha, 

 who has already caused one young hippopotamus to be 

 taken from the White Nile. It is now* under the kind 

 care of the Hon. C. A. Murray, -f- at Cairo, where it safely 

 arrived on the 14th of November last, when it was flou- 



* March, 1850. 



t Zoologists owe a large debt of gratitude to Mr. Murray, for 

 the unwearied activity, tact, skill, and care, which he has exerted 

 to procm-e curious li^ing animals for this country. 



