194 Scientific JitteUigence — Zoology. 



ZOOLOGY. 



7. The Dodo arranged with the Grallte. — Mr Brandt, at pre- 

 sent engaged with an extensive memoir on aquatic birds, lias had 

 his attention drawn aside from that subject by the receipt of inte- 

 resting details regarding the dodo, furnished to him by Dr Hamel 

 and the Directors of the Museum of Natural History of Copenhagen. 

 This remarkable bird, a former inhabitant of the Mauritius, but ex- 

 tinct for 200 years, is placed by Mr Brandt among the Grallte, and 

 he announces the discovery of certain osselets peculiar to the cranium 

 of the Grallse, which have furnished him with new characters for the 

 classification of that order, so rich in species. 



8. The Fossil Rhinoceros of Siberia and the Mammoth Natives 

 of the countries where their .Fossil Remains are found. — Mr Brandt, 

 at the request of Humboldt, has communicated to the Petersburg 

 Imperial Academy the results of his microscopical examination of 

 the remains of food found in the hollows of the teeth of the antedilu- 

 vian rhinoceros, of which the Academy possesses a complete cranium, 

 still covered with skin. According to his researches, it appears that 

 this species of rhinoceros fed on the leaves and fruit of coniferous 

 plants ; hence there is no reason for supposing that the great fossil 

 animals found buried in arctic countiies have ever lived in a tropical 

 one. The bushy hair with which they were clothed, and the ex- 

 amples of mammoths found in an upright position, rather incline him 

 to the opinion that these species lived in the countries and climate 

 where their fossil remains are now found, than to have recourse to the 

 hypothesis of a sudden change of temperature of the climate, or to 

 the opinion of the transportation, by inundation, of their remains from 

 a far distant country. 



9. What becomes of the Skeletons of Wild Animals after death? 

 — The following interesting fact is related by the Count de Mont- 

 losier, in his Memoirs, published in Paris. It is, as far as we 

 have found, perfectly new, and the general observation, of which the 

 fact is illustrative (that of the extreme rarity of meeting with any 

 instances of wild animals dying of what is called a natural death), has 

 been less attended to and investigated than almost any other that 

 could be named, though it is one of singular interest, and of great 

 importance as connected with the study of natural history. The 

 Count de Montlosier says, that his thoughts had long been occupied 

 on the manner in which animals living in a natural state, — hares, 

 rabbits, and game of all kinds, — met their death, and what became 

 of their remains ; and he had repeatedly promised large rewards to 

 gamekeepers and others, who would procure him any animal in that 

 state, but had never been able to meet with one. He then adds, 

 that, having long made himself acquainted with nearly all the caves 

 and caverns in the mountains neighbouring the spot where he resided, 

 there was one which had hitherto remained unexamined even by 

 himself, and was quite unknown to every one else ; which he had, 



