The Zoologist — April, 1873. 3487 



large Otter. — With regard to the otter whose capture I mentioned in a 

 previous uumher (S. S. 3304, 3407), I ought perhaps to have designated it 

 a heavy rather than a large otter. It was not nearly so long as one or two 

 others which I had seen in previous years, but it was the most bulky 

 specimen that had ever come under my observation, and it undoubtedly was 

 of an unusual size, as the old fisherman — to whom an otter is not an 

 unfamiliar creature — sent for me to inspect it, as he had never seen one of 

 like dimensions before. Its length, which I took at the time, was just 

 under forty-eight inches, but its tail seemed short in proportion to its bulk. 

 It was a male, and reached the extraordinary weight of fifty-three pounds 

 and a few odd ounces. The fisherman's son had fortunately noted down its 

 weight at the time it was weighed, and although I was somewhat uncertain 

 about its exact weight without consulting him, yet I knew it weighed some- 

 thing less than half a hundred weight. I may state that the specimen in 

 question was of a very dark rich brown colour, and not of that rusty hue 

 which I have sometimes seen. It was taken at a part of the river where 

 several kinds of fish are very abundant, being preserved, and where the 

 fortune of "a fine salmon" not unfrequently rewards the patience and tact 

 of some disciple of Izaak Walton. — G. B. Corbin ; Ringwood, Hants. 



The Pigmy nippopotamns (not Guy Fawkcs). — This specimen of the 

 extremely rare Liberiaii Hippopotamus [Chmropsis liberiensis) from Scarcies 

 River, just north of Sierra Leone, arrived at Liverpool last week, but it unfor- 

 tunately died on Friday, almost as soon as it reached its destination, Dublin. 

 This second true hippopotamus was first described in 1844 by Dr. Morton, 

 of Philadelphia, in the ' Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences ' of that 

 city. Prof Leidy.in 1850, showed that its peculiarities rendered its differences 

 from Hippopotamus more than specific, and in 1852 gave it the generic 

 name by which it is now known. The full-sized animal is said to be no 

 larger than a heifer, and the specimen under consideration, which was at 

 least seven weeks old, weighed only 23 lbs., whereas the one born in London 

 last November weighed just upon ] 00 lbs. shortly after birth. But the chief 

 peculiarities of the genus Choeropsis are found in the teeth, as there ai'e 

 only two lower incisors instead of four, and the anterior premolars remain 

 functional throughout the life of the animal, instead of being lost as is the 

 case in Hippopotamus. In addition to these points, in which Choeropsis is 

 peculiar, it may be mentioned that the top of the head is convex instead of 

 concave, the central upper incisors are slightly smaller than the outer, 

 instead of larger, and the premaxillary bones are less developed than in 

 Hippopotamus, from a young one of which, as M. A. Milne-Edwards 

 remarks, 'it would be difficult to distiugush it externally. — ''Nature,' 

 March 22. 



[The anonymous author of this paragraph has made a mistake in 

 saying that this httle creature is a true hippopotamus, when he shows us 



