122 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



this example as suffused with a reddish hue. This 

 tint was perhaps due to the moisture of the skin, 

 still sodden with the preservative fluid, rather than 

 to any chemical action of the fluid itself, as has 

 been suggested. The cranium and skeleton of 

 the same animal were also described by Milne 

 Edwards. Perhaps it is the skin of this individual 

 which is now mounted in the Jardin des Plantes 

 Museum, and labelled as a female from West 

 Africa, presented by Prince Napoleon. As already 

 mentioned, there is also 



5. A second small hippopotamus in the Paris 

 collection. Though labelled as H. amphibius, it 

 seemed to be quite as likely to be the pigmy species, 

 especially as it is said to have come from Senegal : 

 it is very old and badly stuffed, and the tail is 

 missing. This dubious specimen was presented 

 many years ago by M. Gerardin. 



6. The sternum of H. libenensis (absent from 

 Milne Edwards' specimen) was described and 

 figured by Peters, in 1873, in his paper " Ueber 

 den Brustbein des Hippopotamus liberiensis" 



7. The calf sent alive to Dublin, in 1873, is now 

 mounted as a stuffed specimen in Trinity College 

 Museum, Dublin : the skeleton of the same animal, 

 together with its brain and several of the abdominal 

 viscera, has also been carefully preserved, and an 

 outline sketch of the brain appeared in the Proc. 

 Royal Irish Acad. (Session 1873-4). Several 



