246 WILD ANIMALS. 



'Scott,' said Mr. Bartlett, putting a bank-note in his hand, 

 ' throw open the paddock gate, and then show yourself to Obash 

 at the end of the path and run for it ! ' The man looked at the 

 note, and then through the trees at the beast, and going into the 

 middle of the path shouted defiantly, ' Obash.' ' Ugh ! ' roared 

 the beast, viciously, and wheeling his huge carcase suddenly 

 round, rushed with surprising swiftness after the keeper. Scott 

 ran for his life, with the hippopotamus roaring at his heels, into 

 the paddock and over the palings, Obash close to his coat-tails ; 

 bang slammed the gate, and the monster was caged again." 



When"Adhela" arrived she was about four months old and 

 weighed about a ton ; and we learn from a description of this 

 creature, that she was fed by the keeper opening her mouth and 

 thrusting his hand covered with milk and corn-meal down her 

 throat. She was not insensible to music, for it was noticed that 

 when any of the musicians on board the vessel in which she was 

 brought over, played his instrument near her, she invariably raised 

 her head in the attitude of listening. " The keeper, also an Arab 

 snake-charmer, was in the habit of exciting the attention of his 

 charge, by a kind of musical call, which it answered by vibrating 

 its great bulk to and fro with evident pleasure, keeping time to 

 the measure of her keeper's song." 



The female hippopotamus watches very carefully and jealously 

 over her young when in a wild state, but in captivity she seems 

 to lose some of the maternal instincts and exhibits a tendency to 

 destroy her calf, either intentionally or by accident, when in one 

 of the periodical fits of bad temper she suffers from if disturbed 

 at such periods. When in the water, the young calf is supported 

 by standing on the neck of the dam which brings its small head 

 first to the surface whenever the mother rises to breathe the 

 air. 



After the successful arrival of a hippopotamus in England, the 

 Jardin des Flantes in Paris procured two specimens, the first one 

 died a few months after its arrival, but the second one lived and was 

 exhibited for some time. The first animal of this species probably 

 ever born out of Africa since its range was confined to that 

 country, was born on the 10th May, 1858, in Paris, but the 



