134 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



the bag on the top of the railing of their inclosnre. 

 One of them raised itself on its hind legs, jumped 

 at it, and pulled it down with its mouth, when 

 they resumed their game with it. The attack of 

 the full-grown animal, with its enormous sabre- 

 like tusks, must be most formidable. 



Shortly afterwards, I came on a flock of ten 

 hoopoes, and stood admiring their butterfly-like 

 flight, which must aid them in their escape from 

 hawks, as the desultory motions of the butterflies 

 when on the wing save them from fly-catchers and 

 other small birds. 



The three young grisly (?) bears were in high 

 force, one appealing to the people most energet- 

 ically for supplies, another dancing merrily, and 

 the third lagging behind with a sort of minuet 

 step. This lag had, no doubt, his reasons for 

 remaining in the back-ground, for I observed that 

 when the spectators threw food to the party, it 

 frequently passed over the two foremost, and was 

 quietly appropriated by the retiring character. 

 The attitude of the orator was a study for St. 

 Stephen's. They are evidently favorites, and all 

 three came in for their share ; but the Cleon of 

 the party secured the greatest portion of the elee- 

 mosynary biscuit. 



5th April, 1851. New lion arrived from South 

 Africa, and good friends with Cocksedge already. 

 The Sumatran Tapir looking in good health. 

 The carunculated crane and lovely Mandarin ducks 

 in high feather. Works everywhere in progress 

 to add to attraction in this annus miralilis. Hippo 

 was having a game of romps with a young Egyp- 

 tian gentleman lately come over, but kept in the 

 water, and now and then made a very queer face 

 at his playmate. The tank in the open air near 

 the giraffe-house is finished, and seats are prepar- 

 ing for the spectators, so that a multitude of all 

 nations may, during this exhibiting summer, see 

 Hippo in his bath at their ease. A building is 

 rising for Mr. Gould's magnificent collection of 

 humming-birds, the finest and most numerous 

 ever brought together. The work in which they 

 will be given to the public will surpass those of 

 this enterprising and liberal zoologist already 

 before the world, brilliant as they are. Though 

 the true Egyptian crocodile died on the voyage, 

 there is no reason to doubt that another may be 

 soon forthcoming. Poor Mr. Duncan has done his 

 best to interest the King of Dahomey to obtain a 

 live African elephant, as our readers may remem- 

 ber, but Captain Forbes, who seems actuated by 

 the same kindly feelings towards the society, found 

 that the king classed this attempt among the impos- 



sibilities. His majesty could understand how a 

 wild elephant might be entrapped into a pitfall 

 but to get him out and lead him away no he 

 could not or would not believe in the possibility 

 of that. But if there is a failure in the south, 

 the Viceroy of Egypt rules in the north ; and 

 there are safe grounds for hoping, that through 

 his highness'' powerful liberality, both an Afri- 

 can elephant and a rhinoceros may be forthcoming, 

 good Mr. Murray being on the spot to lake care 

 of the much desired additions. With the lide of 

 foreigners setting in to inundate these islands, two 

 orangs from Borneo, three feet high, and rejoicing 

 in the names of Darby and Joan, are coming. 

 Despatches have already been received, with a 

 programme for their treatment from morning till 

 night : 



Every day when they go to dine, 



They 're to have, at one, a slice of pine ! 



Poor dear Theodore ! If he were spared to 

 us, what a second edition of The Chimpanzee we 

 should have. 



Negotiations are pending with Leyden for a 

 visit from the gigantic Salamander, Sicboldtia 

 maxima, found by Dr. Von Siebold, in such a 

 lake as we read of in the Arabian Nights, on a 

 basaltic mountain in Japan, and brought away 

 some twelve years since by the learned doctor. 

 The giant loved his wife, taken at the same time, 

 so well, that he ate her up during the passage to 

 Europe, and has thriven accordingly. This is 

 the closest living analogue to the fossil Andrias 

 Scheuchzeri, the Homo diluvii tcstis of that learned 

 illustrator of the Bible. I should not be surprised 

 if Mr. Mitchell, with whom all things seem pos- 

 sible, were, by hook or by crook, to beg or bor- 

 row an egg of the gigantic bird of Madagascar, 

 fit rival for the. New Zealand Moa.* Two of 

 j these eggs, besides fragments, are in Paris. 

 Each would hold six ostrich eggs, sixteen emeu 

 eggs, one hundred and forty eggs of the common 

 barn door hen, and a thousand humming-bird eggs. 

 Old Sinbad was a true man, after all ; and we 

 may catch a Rok yet.f 



* Dinornis. Owen. Nearly a perfect skeleton of this 

 form has been found lying together, and is on its way to 

 this country. 



t I have just seen (April 19) the Asiatic elephant, 

 with her calf, seven months old, at her side. They have 

 been secured to the Zoological Society by the energetic 

 management; and I hear that "more elephants " are 

 coming. Four are now to be seen in this noble collection ; 

 and before the year is out, a herd will probably be exhib- 

 ited in the Regent's Park. 



