1908.] ON THE BREEDTNG-HABITS OF A CICHLID FISH. 405 



portrait of the Cape Giraffe for his model, and he may have 

 copied Paterson's specimen in the British Museum." It should, 

 I think, be remembered that Richaixl Bennett Davis was an 

 artist of good reputation. He was afterwards animal-painter to 

 William IV., and the Court Officials of that day must have been 

 aware of his presence for the express purpose of painting the 

 Giraffe, and indeed of his whole history. He owed his education 

 as an artist to royal favour. His father had been huntsman to 

 the royal harriers ; George III. took favourable notice of some of 

 the boy's sketches, and placed him under Sir William Beechey. 

 In 1806 he sent to the Academy a painting, "Mares and Foals 

 from the Royal Stud at Windsor." His appointment as animal- 

 painter to the King was made in 1831, and he painted the 

 cavalcade which formed the coronation procession of that 

 monarch*. 



There is, moreover, incontestable evidence that he did jmint the 

 Giraffe, and practically all that we know about the habits of the 

 animal in captivity came from his pen. He contributed a very 

 interesting account of the Giraffe to the 'Literary Gazette' t; and 

 in the following jDassage occurs the first mention of the bilobed 

 teeth known to me : — 



" The upper lip is longer than the lower one, which assists the tongue in drawing 

 in the boughs ; but when grinding its food it is contracted. It has no teeth or 

 nippers in the upper jaw, and the outside ones are divided to the socket. It is 

 a ruminating animal, and lies down when it chews the cud." 



The fact that Davis painted a jiicture of the Giraffe was stated 

 by the editor of the ' Literary Gazette,' who expressed " our 

 obligation for this paper to Mr. R. B. Davis, who, while painting 

 the pictvn^e of the animal for His Majesty, had many oppor- 

 tunities of observing its peculiarities." In ' Menageries' (p. 348) 

 Davis's account of the bilobed teeth is quoted, but this important 

 part of his narrative is omitted from the ' Zoological Magazijie ' 

 and the ' English Cyclopaedia.' 



5. On the Breeding-Habits o£ a Cichlid Fish ( Tilapia nilotica) . 

 By Charles L. Boulenger, B.A., F.Z.S. 



[Received March 23, 1908.] 



During a short exj^edition in the spi-ing of last year to 

 Lake Qurun, in the Fayum province of Egypt, I was able to 

 make some observations on the breeding -habits of Tilapia 

 nilotica, the " Bolti sultani " of the native fisher'men. 



These interesting Cichlids abound in the brackish waters of 

 the lake and are extensively fished for by the natives, the Birket 

 el Qurun supplying most of the markets of Lower Egyj)t with 

 this excellent food-fish. 



Isolated observations have been recorded on the habits of the 



* Diet. Nat. Biogr. xiv. p. 171. t Dec. 1, 1829. 



