88 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Between March 4, 1844, and May 7, 1847, the female condor 

 laid seven eggs. The last was put under a Dorking foster- 

 mother, which sat for fifty-four days, and on June 30 the chick 

 began to chip the wall of its procreant prison ; but it was not 

 released till the following morning, when the keeper had to 

 break the shell, for the membrane had dried round the nestling. 

 "Thus," said Broderip, with due remembrance of "Candide," 

 " came into this best of all possible worlds the first condor 

 hatched in England." 



The chick, after thriving well, to all appearance, died on 

 July 21 ; and the foster-mother, which had been most attentive 

 to it to the last, missed it a good deal. 



Jack, the fine Indian elephant purchased in 1831, died early 

 in June. He suffered from extensive disease of the knee-joint 

 and from an abscess in the throat. Broderip, who visited the 

 Gardens on Whit Sunday, with Owen and Murchison, in attend- 

 ance on the Grand Duke Constantino, left the following notes : 



The elephant was miserably fallen away, and stood, as he had long pre- 

 viously remained, supporting himself by laying his huge trunk along the 

 bar that fronted his apartment. He was evidently suffering much, and the 

 keeper warned me not to go near, his temper having become ferocious. I 

 knew him well, however, and ventured to approach ; and he threw up his 

 trunk and showed his molar teeth in his open mouth at my usual signal. I 

 had nothing to give him but bran, and that he took from my hand. 



The animal was secluded for a short time ; and when the 

 end was near, sank back upon his haunches, with his forelegs 

 extended, and remained motionless for about two hours. 

 Then his trunk dropped and he expired, stiffening in the 

 upright position, not even his head sinking. 



Owen wanted to secure the brain, and sent some students to 

 saw the skull and take it out. The task was beyond their powers^ 

 and they gave it up. Owen undertook the business, and in the 

 course of the work was wounded in the hand by two spicula of 

 bone. These punctures excited some alarm in the minds of his 

 friends ; but the places were at once cauterised, and a day or 

 two after he was well enough to show the treasures of his 

 museum to the Grand Duke. 



The tree-kangaroo of New Guinea, a form that, from the 

 nature of its habitat, has taken to an arboreal mode of life, figures 



