3488 The Zoologist— April, 1873. 



that he is perfectly aware that the genus Choeropsis has been iustituted, 

 and very properly, purposely to receive it : the following additional parti- 

 culars are extracted from the ' Field ' of the same date. — E. N.'] 



The animal stands not much higher than the largest wild boar, only very 

 much more bulky in the body, and it has a proportionally shorter head than 

 is that of the now familiarly known huge hippopotamus, exemplified by the 

 pair, with their offspring, which are living in the Regent's Park. I further 

 remarked that it was well to have an opportunity to bring to notice this 

 small hippopotamus, as it might lead to travellers and others directing their 

 attention to the animal, and to the much-needed acquisition of skulls and 

 other specimens of it, for the museums of this part of the world. Until a few 

 days ago I believe that I am correct in asserting that there were no spoils of 

 it whatever in any European museum, with the exception of a skull in that 

 of Paris, which has been minutely described by Professor Milne-Edwards. 

 Yet the animal is known to abound in the interior of the free black colony 

 of Liberia ; and Dr. Gobeen, of Munrovia, informed Professor Morton of 

 Philadelphia, that it is plentiful in the river St. Paul, and that it varies in 

 weight from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. " They are slow and 

 heavy in their movements," remarks Dr. Gobeen, " yet wiU sometimes 

 stray two or three miles from the river, in which situation they are killed 

 by the natives. They are extremely tenacious of life, and almost invul- 

 nerable, excepting when shot or otherwise wounded in the heart. When 

 injured they become irritable and dangerous, but are said by the natives 

 never to attack them when in their canoes. The negroes are very fond of 

 their flesh, which seems to be intermediate between beef and veal. This 

 specimen was brought by Mr. Pope Hennessey. It was obtained by 

 Governor Hennessey from Mr. Pria, who, with himself, was officially em- 

 ployed on the west coast of Africa. He purchased it from a Mandingo 

 trader, and it was kept for some time at the Government House at Sierra 

 Leone. 



Perception ia Ibc Lower Animals.— Many years ago I was on a mail- 

 coach, and as soon as we came to a public-house the coachman pulled up 

 for the fraction of a second. He did so when we came to a second public- 

 house, and I then asked him the reason. He pointed to the off-hand 

 wheeler, and said that she had been long completely blind, and she would stop 

 at every place on the road at which she had before stopped. He had found 

 by experience that less time was wasted by pulling up his team than by 

 trying to drive her past the place, for she was contented with a momentary 

 stop. After this 1 watclied her, and it was evident that she knew exactly, 

 before the coachman began to pull up the other horses, every public-house on 

 the road, for she had at some time stopped at all. I think there can be httle 

 doubt that this mare recognized all these houses by her sense of smell. With 

 respect to cats, so many cases have been recorded of their returning from a 



