756 



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all liours, and no appearance of light was 

 perceptible. 



ZOOTOCA. A genus of small Saurian 

 reptiles, in which is placed our pretty little 

 olive-coloured Lizard, Zootoca vivipara. 

 [See LIZARD.] 



ZORILLA. A genus of carnivorous quad- 

 rupeds, closely allied to the weasels, of which 

 a species (Zcn-illa striata) is found in South 

 Africa. 



ZOSTEROPS. A genus of Birds closely 

 allied to the Warblers, and seemingly in- 

 termediate between them and the Titmice. 

 A marked peculiarity of the species belong- 

 ing to the genus is that their eyelids are 

 surrounded by a narrow ring of snow-white 

 feathers. The birds are all small, and 



generally of a yellowish green or brown 

 colour. They are found principally in 

 Africa, Asia, and Australia. Our figure, 

 copied from Mr. Gould's truly elegant work, 

 represents the ZOSTEROPS DORSALIS or 

 White-eye of the colonists of New South 

 Wales ; Mr. Gould informs us that in South 

 Australia, New South Wales, and Van 

 Diemen's Land this is the bird which is seen 

 more frequently than any other species. In 



the forests and thickets it abounds, and is 

 far from a welcome visitor in gardens, where 

 it does great damage to buds and fruits of 

 every kind, though it is upon insects that it 

 principally feeds ; in its disposition it is 

 very familiar, often building its nest and 

 rearing its young in shrubs and rose-trees 

 bordering on the garden walks. This nest, 

 which is also figured in the cut, is a very 

 beautiful structure, being of a round deep 

 cup-shaped form and composed of fine 

 grasses, moss, and wool, and most carefully 

 lined with fibrous roots and grasses ; the eggs 

 are of a beautiful pale blue colour. The 

 song of this bird is very pretty and lively, 

 and there is no perceptible difference in the 

 plumage of the sexes. 



Another species, ZOSTEROPS CHLORONOTUS, 

 also described by Mr. Gould, was found by 

 Mr. Gilbert in Western Australia ; it is par- 

 ticularly fond of figs and grapes, and is often 

 to be seen in gardens where these fruits are 

 grown, in flocks as numerous as sparrows in 

 this country. It takes flies on the wing like 

 the true fly-catchers. 



Z YG^EN A. A genus of Chondropterygious 

 fishes belonging to the Shark family, and at 

 once distinguished from all its members by 

 the horizontally flattened head, truncated 

 in front, its sides extending transversely like 

 the head of a hammer, whence the common 

 name of the species Hammer- headed Sharks. 

 Mr. Arthur Adams when on the east coast of 

 Borneo mentions a circumstance which shows 

 the extreme voracity of a species of Zygaena. 

 One of these fish sprang from the water, 

 seized a bullock's hide which was drying at 

 the bows of the ship, (H.M.S. Samarang) 

 and succeeded in tearing a portion of it 

 off. He also mentions that when one hun- 

 dred miles from Batan, a shark was caught 

 with a partially digested pig in his stomach, 

 which had been thrown overboard at the an- 

 chorage of San Domingo in that island. [See 

 SHARK.] 



The name ZYGAENA is also applied by some 

 naturalists to the pretty black and red sphin- 

 gidous insects called Burnet-moths ; the 

 word Anthrocera however is now generally 

 substituted for it. [See ANTHROCEKIDJE.] 



ZYGODACTYLI. The name given by 

 some ornithologists to that order of birds in 

 which two of the toes are directed forwards 

 and two backwards, the term Scansores how- 

 however is more generally used ; it contains 

 the Parrots, Woodpeckers, Cuckoos, &c. [See 



SCANSOKES.] 



