166 THE ZOOLOOIOAL SOCIETY. 



was no actual evidence to prove that anybody had touched the 

 elephant." The jury agreed that it was "a case of pure 

 accident." 



The East African buffalo was introduced in 1877, and a 

 number of gelada baboons were deposited by Carl Hagenbeck, 

 by whom they had been exhibited at the Alexandra Palace. 

 A white-cheeked gibbon was also received, but this was the 

 second specimen, as a young one was exhibited in 1840. Up 

 to this time these two appear to be the only examples to reach 

 Europe alive. 



In 1878 the brown mouse lemur, Smith's dwarf lemur, the 

 isabelline bear, and the equine antelope were shown for the 

 first time. More important, from a menagerie point of view, 

 was the purchase for £800 of a young male hippopotamus, 

 born in the Amsterdam Gardens, and about two years old. A 

 correspondent of a daily paper in describing a visit to the 

 Gardens at Christmas, mentions what appears to be a Siberian 

 tiger, though the List throws no light on the matter. He seems 

 to have derived his information from Bartlett, and says that 

 this animal, which he calls " the hairy tiger," is found " in cold 

 and snow districts, and has a much longer and more wool-like 

 coat than the tigers from the hot districts of India." ^ In the 

 following year the mitred monkey, the red-faced saki, the 

 Japanese goat-antelope, the mule deer, and the horned parra- 

 keet were introduced. A pair of these birds, from New Cale- 

 donia, were purchased ; on account of their extreme rarity — 

 for there were few skins at that time even in the principal 

 museums — a plate representing the species was given in the 

 Council's Report. Obaysch, the male hippopotamus presented 

 in 1850 by the Viceroy of Egypt, died on March 11. No traces 

 of organic disease were found. Bartlett t attributed the death 

 " to pure old age." The animal was only thirty years old, and 

 this has been exceeded by Guy Fawkes, bom November 5, 

 1872, now in its thirty-fourth year. 



A fight took place in the lion house, on October 26, between 

 two tigers that had been paired up. The female struck her 

 claw through the cartilaginous division of the nose of the 



* Dailt/ News, December 27, 1878. 



t " Wild Animals in Captivity," p. 77. 



