9224 Sucklers. 
coat is “long, and of such excellent quality that the natives prize it for wearing almost 
more than [that of] any other of the antelope tribe.” Its chief food being the long fila- 
ments of the panicles of the Byblus-rush, in order to record this interesting fact in con- 
pexion with so important an African plant as the Papyrus or Byblus, I should prefer to 
call this new antelope Tragelaphus byblophagus instead of I’. Spekii, the name suggested 
by Dr. P. L. Sclater. Another character of Wis animal is very worthy of note—namely, 
the extreme length of the tues or fore parts of the hoofs, so that “ it could hardly walk 
on the dry ground,” but of course most useful for traversing the mud and marshy shores 
of the lakes. This provision of nature reminds me of the long toes of the water rail, 
gallinule and other kinds of the family Macrodactyli of Cuvier, which he characterizes 
as having “les duigts des pieds fort longs et propres & marcher sur les herbes des 
marais ;” and, in like manner, it adapts that antelope to walking over and being sup- 
ported upon the long stems of the Byblus-rush and other fluviatile “ plants so densely 
interwoven in the waters ”—or, in the exact words of the philosopher Seneca (Nat. 
Queest. lib. vi. cap. &), “ ita implicite aquis herba”—not only of the Upper Nile itself, 
but also of the Reservoir lakes which feed that mighty and sacred river.—John Hogg, 
in * Annals and Magazine of Natural History? 
[I cannot concur in the opinion that living in water has any tendency to produce 
long or excellent hair: it certainly dues not appear to have effected this for the hippo- 
potamus or the dugong. It is better in such cases for observers to confine themselves 
to the facts, and leave the conclusions from facts for those more accustomed to such 
speculations.—Ldward Newman.]| 
Natural-History Notes, principally from Formosa. 
By RosBert SwinHor, Esq. 
THE following facts, gathered from a reliable friend, may prove of 
interest to some of your readers. 
1. A large white porpoise was seen floating into the harbour at 
Swatow quite dead. A boat was sent to tow it alongside the ship, 
when it was found that a large yellowish fish, weighing 7 tbs., was 
sticking in its food-pipe. The porpoise had evidently over-calculated 
the capacity of its swallow, and had seized and attempted to devour 
too large a fish, which had stuck fast nnd-way, and had choked it. 
2. An osprey flew past the ship with a snake-like creature in its 
claws. The quarry wriggled round and about the wings of the bird, 
and greatly impeded its flight. After soaring about some time, and 
finding it in vain to try and master the prey in the air, the osprey car- 
ried it to a rock, where it soon settled the difference. My friend con- 
fidently affirmed that the prey was a snake, but I feel pretty sure it 
must have been a conger eel, or perhaps a murry, both of which 
abnormal fish might at a distance, even through the best telescope, be 
mistaken for a snake. It is impossible to believe that ospreys prey 
