LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



123 



been a scarcity of fodder ; and that afterwards, 

 these same cattle, even when they have not been 

 in want of proper fodder, have taken to this food 

 of their own accord, and have eaten it without 

 anything else being mixed with it. 



The regimen has agreed with our Hippo 

 wonderfully. No animal could be in better 

 health. He was thoroughly enjoying existence 

 in his bath, wherein he spends more time as he 

 .grows older. The teeth are just come through, 

 and he seemed to take pleasure in champing Pro- 

 fessor Owen's stick when held near its mouth, as 

 a child would use a coral. When he rises after 

 his submersion, he shakes the water from his ears 

 with a brisk motion ; this he invariably does when 

 he emerges. The overlapping of the huge upper 

 lip stands him in good stead when he wishes to 

 expel the water from his mouth. He drives it 

 backwards with considerable force, and the water 

 rushes from under the overlap, as if from a 

 gigantic pair of gills. When in its natural state, 

 the animal feeds upon water-plants, scooped up by 

 its enormous teeth, these sluices must be very 

 convenient for getting rid of the mud and water. 



The great tortoise had buried its head in the 

 sand in the Ostrich-house up to the shoulders ; but 

 the greater portion of the shell and the lower 

 extremities were exposed. I hope it may be 

 alive, but I have my misgivings. Not one of the 

 large tortoises that I recollect has survived. Yet 

 White's old tortoise retired annually under his 

 bunch of hepaticas, and lay sliug in the ground, 

 open to every skyey influence, till rejoicing nature 

 bade winter farewell. A smaller one rested its 

 head upon the sand, but had not buried itself at 

 all. 



I suspect that we do not know how to manage 

 these creatures, which perish in consequence of 

 the artificial life they lead. The hybernation is 

 incomplete and this intermediate state, this life 

 in death, neither one thing nor the other. The 

 animal consequently loses its balance and dies ! 



So ! The Polar Bear has escaped a vinculo 

 matrimonii, and remains in his bachelor's den on 

 a separate maintenance. I thought how it would 

 be. They led a regular cat and dog life ; she 

 growling and snapping whenever he came near 

 her, and he looking and acting like a thorough 

 Jerry Sneak, and giving unmistakable evidence 

 of his anxiety to get out of such company, by 

 rearing himself up against the walls of his prison, 

 and examining every part of it not without effect. 

 For, some days since, he scaled the smooth wall 

 of the yard, and, notwithstanding the inverted 

 cheval-de-frise with which it was fortified, got 

 clear of his prison and his termagant wife at once. 

 He was discovered, early one morning, near the 

 Dromedary-house, by a blacksmith who had come 

 to his work. 



The blacksmith looked at the white bear, and the 

 white bear looked at the blacksmith, who, like a 

 valiant and wise smith, did not run, but stood his 

 ground and shouted ; whereupon the bear retreated 

 into a bush of laurel. Presently the bear put 



forth his nose, as if meditating an advance, when 

 the smith shouted again, and the bear again drew 

 back. This amcebaean scene continued till the 

 shouts of the man collected some of the keepers, 

 who instantly took measures for his recapture. 

 He walked off, got upon the shed at the end of 

 the new aviary, and descended thence into the 

 paddock. Hereabouts, Cocksedge, who some 

 years back boldly marched up to a crouching lion, 

 of which he had the care, but which had escaped 

 from the old temporary Carnivora-house near the 

 spot where the Dromedary-house now stands, and 

 was ogling some antelopes and deer in the adjoin- 

 ing close with no amorous intentions, came up 

 with the bear. Him he treated differently from 

 the lion, whom he seized by the mane, and led 

 back to his den ; but the bear having no mane, 

 Cocksedge tackled " The Polar," as he is called 

 in some of the Fair bills, in a different way. The 

 brave keeper advanced with a strong rope, which 

 had a running noose, and threw it over the 

 monster's neck ; and then he pulled, and the bear 

 pulled, till the rope broke. Bruin quietly lifted 

 his arm, and, with his fore-paw, disembarrassed 

 himself of the noose. Cocksedge, nothing daunted, 

 caught him with another rope, and a struggle 

 ensued, the infuriated beast biting the rope till he 

 got free, and walking on, followed by a detachment 

 of keepers, who managed, by heading him at 

 proper intervals, and showing a bold front, to keep 

 him out of the park. While they were trying to 

 prevent this, he made a desperate, but, luckily, 

 ineffectual rush at one of the men. At last, by 

 dint of marches and counter-marches, they so 

 managed their tactics, that they drove him gradu- 

 ally up to the door of a den which stood invitingly 

 open, and in he went, and was secured ; not, 

 however, without dashing with all his weight and 

 strength at the gate of his new prison. This 

 escape led to an immediate order for caging the 

 whole of the white-bear yard overhead with iron, 

 where Bruin is again domiciled with his partner, 

 a reconciliation having taken place ; and, now, 

 with the exception of an occasional squabble, not 

 uncommon in such cases, they get on very well 

 together. 



But we must return to the reptile-house, and, 

 like the witch of Ben-y-gloe, finish our snakes.* 



And here I would venture to suggest an im- 



* Those who have not had the pleasure of reading 

 Mr. Scrope's stirring book on Deer-stalking had bet- 

 ter possess themselves of it at once ; and there they 

 will find the witch surrounded by all the horrors in 

 which M. G. Lewis, that "jewel of a man," as Byron 

 called him, could envelop her. Here is a morsel or 

 two by way of a whet : 



She heard him on her mount of stone, 

 Where, on snakes alive, she was feeding alone; 

 And straight her limbs she anointed all 

 With basilisk's blood, and viper's gall. 



But seeing, before away she sped, 

 That her snakes, half-eaten, were not yet dead, 

 She crushed their heads with fiendish spite, 

 But had not the mercy to kill them quite. 



Now, if lords and ladies are curious to know 

 What became of the witch when she left Ben-y-gloe, 

 'T is right to inform them, for fear of mistakes, 

 That home she went, and finished her snakes. 



