Quadrupeds. 7309 



tion, more or less deeply colouring the ground, as well as the ground- 

 markings, when they exist. 



" To complete the various modes in which the derm of Coleoptera 

 presents itself to the eye of the entomologist, the naked species 

 (always exclusive of hair or pile) should form the fourth class (or 

 rather the first of all), viz. : — 



"4. Col. Alepida [without scales]." 



The Elephant Horse. — A hairless horse is now being exhibited at Mason's riding- 

 school, at Brompton, as an " elepliant-horse brought from Ceylon by an officer in ihe 

 Indian army.'' The following paragraph, showing how such curiosities may be pro- 

 duced, is extracted from the ' Field ' newspaper of the 1st of December. — E. Newman. 



Another Hairless Horse. — Mr. Buckland's description of an elephant-horse, in a 

 late number of the ' Field,' brought to my recollection a " Nile-horse" of which I had 

 read an account in the 'Philosophical Magazine ' for 1801 ; aud as the history of 

 this latter animal involves a curious physiological problem, while it discloses a gross 

 act of showmanship, perhaps it may not be without some interest to the reader. 

 About 1796 a French showman, named Alpy, who had previously been an attendant 

 in the Royal Menagerie at Versailles, exhibited wha the termed a Nile-horse over the 

 greater part of Germany. This animal was almost utterly destitute of hair, for the 

 report, drawn up with great minuteness by the officials of the Veterinary College of 

 Berlin, states that it had only one hair on its whole body, viz., " a black bristle, three- 

 tenths of an inch in length, on the lower eyelid of the left eye." Alpy, of course, told 

 a romantic story about the animal, — how it had been taken, after a terrific hand-to- 

 hand combat, by an Austrian officer from a Turkish bey ; how sultans and paclias had 

 offered fabulous amounts in gold and jewels for its ransom ; and that it was one of a 

 race of hairless horses whose habitat was on the banks of the upper waters of the river 

 Nile. As the horse seemed to be about fifteen years of age, Alpy was induced to sell 

 it to the Veterinary College of Berlin for fifty louis-d'ors, a very smart sum for a horse 

 at that time and place. The German, French and English scientific periodicals 

 noticed the strange animal, all agreeing that it was of a decidedly distinct race from 

 the common horse ; the only point of discussion being with respect to its native 

 country. Professor Nauman, in his ' Manual of the Science of the Horse,' gave not 

 only a description, but also an engraving of the hairless brute, and gravely added his 

 reasons for concluding that it was a native of the little-known tropical regions of 

 Africa. For four years this animal had been the lion, wonder and pride of the Berlin 

 College; when one day a country farrier, named Sebald, from Ulm, in Suabia, 

 visiting the college, immediately recognized it as an old acquaintance. He knew it, 

 he said, when a foal, — when it had as good a coat of hair on it as any other horse ; 

 he could even tell what caused its hair to fall oflf, but, as may be supposed, he was 

 most unmercifully pooh-poohed by the savans of Berlin. They did more : they pro- 

 claimed the country farrier's utter ignorance of horseflesh, and even demeaned them- 

 selves by ridiculing the rude patois of the Suabian. Sebald's amour propre was hurt 

 in the teuderest part : he well knew that he was right, and he determined to trace the 

 history of the animal to its minutest point. He did so, and incontestibly proved that 



