Quadrupeds. 2865 



tures just described find no analogues amongst the polypodoms of the Ciliobranchiate 

 Polyps, they do exhibit a close conformity to the typical contour which prevails 

 amongst the true Foraminifera. In confirmation of the above reasoning, a descrip- 

 tion is given of the structure of Orbicula adunca. This elegant Foraminifera has 

 long been one of the best known of recent species ; it its young state it is one of the 

 most abundant organisms in the Cuban sand : in this immature form it appears a 

 Foraminifera of the ordinary spiral type ; gradually, however, the posterior angles of 

 the new segments, instead of continuing to be prolonged over the dorsum of the shell, 

 begin to terminate more abruptly ; this change becomes increasingly conspicuous as 

 each new segment is added, the angle at length becomes recurved, verges towards the 

 opposite portion of the corresponding segments, giving more and more a reniform 

 contour to the shell, until the last three or four segments are frequently completely 

 cycloid. 



Thus the cycloid form, which in the disks from Tonga is exhibited from the first, 

 and which soon becomes the normal condition of O. complanata, is only attained in 

 O. adunca at a very advanced stage of growth ; the existence of this affinity is further 

 shown by an examination of the internal part of 0. adunca. From the close typical 

 resemblances of structure and development that are seen to exist in these forms, the 

 author is satisfied as to the correctness of M. D'Orbigny's opinion that Orbiculum and 

 its allies are true Foraminifera, and not Zoophytes. — /. W. 



Arrival of the Hippopotamus at Regents Park. 

 (By our own Reporter). 



The hippopotamus, on the morning after his arrival in London, 

 might truly say, " I awoke and found myself famous." The anxiety 

 of the public to obtain a glimpse of him has exceeded the expecta- 

 tions, sanguine as they were, of the gentlemen more particularly con- 

 cerned in his importation. This is as it should be : in the days of 

 the Emperors, the hippopotamus was exhibited in the amphitheatre 

 at Rome, but from that time to the present we have only known the 

 beast by his hide in the British Museum, and by the fancy portraits of 

 him in the picture-books. All honour to Abbas Pacha, to Mr. Mur- 

 ray, and especially to Mr. Mitchell : for to their generosity, care, and 

 enterprise we are solely indebted for the opportunity of seeing the 

 hippopotamus alive. His capture was on this wise. A party of 

 hippopotamus-hunters disporting themselves on the banks of the 

 Nile, far up, and where its banks are margined with brush-wood, 

 wounded his mother by a rifle-ball, which sunk deep into the vital re- 

 gion about the heart : but the poor creature impelled by that storge 

 which is so beautiful a trait in the character of brutes, refused to quit 

 the spot where her offspring lay concealed in the bushes. The hun- 



