2948 THE ZooLoGisT—FEBRUARY, 1872. 
researches, Had these specimens not been examined microscopically they 
would donbtless have been held to establish the fact of hermaphroditism 
having occurred in fish.— WV. B. Tegetmeier, in the ‘ Field.’ 
Birth and Death of a young Hippopotamus at the Zoological Gardens.— 
On Tuesday morning last Mr. Bartlett was kind enough to inform me that 
a little hippopotamus had been born. Of course I went to the Gardens at 
once. On looking through the window of the house where the hippopotamus 
keeper resides, we could easily see the mother and baby. The mother lay 
in the corner furthest away from the window; the young one lay close to 
her; the nose of the mother was close to the nose of the infant. Everything 
was painfully quiet, and the only sound was the chirping of the sparrows: 
the sparrows seemed to chirp louder in the hippopotamus-house than any- 
where else. I understand there was no difficulty about the birth, and that 
the mother did not sweat blood, as on the previous occasion. The little 
animal, as Mr. Bartlett informed me, had not been seen to suck, although 
the mother had plenty of milk. An attempt had been made to get the little 
thing away directly it was born, but the mother was so savage that it was 
thought best by Dr. Sclater and Mr. Bartlett to leave matters alone. As 
far as T could make out, through an opera glass, the little one is as near as 
possible the same size as its brother, which was born February 21st, 1871, 
and died in three days. It seems surprisingly strange that the instinct of 
the mother was not sufficient to induce the young one to suck, and it seems 
almost contrary to the rule of Nature that the young one did not know 
where to seek its food. Both mother and child had been in the water, and 
the young one could swim as well as its mother. Two milch goats had been 
provided in case they could have got the young one away from its mother. 
The real fact is we do not know what the real habits of the Hippopotami 
may be when they bring forth their young in the state of nature, and this 
shows the value of the doctrine I have always preached,—namely, how much 
more interesting and important it is for the sake of zoological science that 
travellers should continually shoot, shoot, shoot. Now if some of our 
African travellers,—and surely there are plenty of gentlemen now in London 
who have been in countries where Hippopotami abound,—who would have 
taken the trouble to inquire of the natives, or observe themselves, how the 
young Hippopotami are managed by their mother, they might have been 
able to have afforded Dr. Sclater and Mr. Bartlett such valuable information 
as would have enabled them to have preserved the life of such a little animal 
so valuable to the Society. On Thursday morning I went up again, and 
found, alas! that the little Umzimvooboo (as the Africans call the hippo- 
potamus) had died at six o'clock on Wednesday night, at the age of eighty- 
four hours. It was in the dissecting-room, and an artist was making a 
