Quadrupeds . 1 29 3 



and as we reached those that are above the landport-gate, I had the good fortune to 

 meet with the apes, a rare occurrence, as they generally roam about the inaccesible ac- 

 clivities on the eastern side of the Rock, and only leave those parts when the cold wind 

 blows on that side. Of these apes I saw more than twenty ; they remained on the 

 rocks twenty feet above us, busy in the midst of the bushes searching for roots and 

 fruits. As they are never hunted, they are not very wild, and the noise we made by 

 clapping our hands scarcely made them run away. The denial from the Academy of 

 Sciences of a fact so well attested as that of the presence of apes in Gibraltar, is almost 

 as absurd as the assertion of a Spaniard, with whom I travelled from Seville to Ma- 

 drid, that these animals occupied the Rock entirely, and were so numerous that no ship 

 could dare approach land without running the risk of being sunk. As for knowing 

 whether the apes have always existed there, or whether they have become naturalized, 

 it must be difficult to determine ; but I think the first supposition the most probable, 

 since these animals are seen on the African mountains, and they might as well have 

 also inhabited a country so near it, and with the same climate." I am not unaware 

 that the citation of these passages will furnish some of our self-styled " philosophical " 

 naturalists, with an additional argument against' The Zoologist;' however, suum culque, 

 philosophy, hypothesis, speculation for them, fact, reason and truth for us. — Edward 

 Neivman. 



Note on the Gibraltar or Barbary Ape. — This is the Simla Plthecus, Scheb. Simla 

 Inuus, Linn. Syst. Nat. Macacus Indlcns, Desm. Mamm. Magot, Buff. Barbary 

 Ape, Pennant, Quadrupeds. Shaw's Icones. According to Shaw, it grows to the 

 height of four feet. The one called the " Town Major " is said to have been nearly 

 that height ; they are generally, from two to three feet high. The fur is greenish- 

 grey ; face is of a swarthy flesh-colour; and instead of a tail there is a skinny appen- 

 dage. The Simla sylvanus, or pigmy ape, appears to me a much smaller animal, and 

 to have a rounder face. It is frequently brought over from Barbary, and sold in the 

 Gibraltar market, but it has never been seen wild on the Rock ; it is more easily tamed 

 than the other, which is a very pugnacious creature. The other large quadrupeds found 

 wild on the Rock are porcupines, foxes, and hares. The lizard tribe are in great abun- 

 dance. The red-legged partridge is frequently met with : on the higher parts of the 

 Rock the entomologist will find Gibraltar an excellent locality for making his re- 

 searches. In fact the Fauna of Gibraltar, if ever produced, will be a sort of 

 commentary, like its Flora, of the neighbouring parts of Spain and Africa. — 

 E. F. Kelaart, M.D. 



Carnivorous propensity of Hedgehogs. — Some years ago I had three or four hedge- 

 hogs which I kept in a garden, of which they had the range, in the same garden I also 

 had several rabbits; after they had been together for some days, I found that a rabbit 

 was killed every night, the remains of the skin and the bones only being left: this I sup- 

 posed to be done by my neighbours' cats, and prepared to wage war on them accord- 

 ingly, but to my surprise, on peeping into the garden early one morning, I saw a hedge- 

 hog busy at work with his nose buried in the fresh-cut throat of an expiring rabbit ; 

 and from further observations, I had no doubt that the hedgehogs had been guilty of 

 all the murders. All the hedgehogs I have had, seemed to become " possessed " and 

 died in that state ; each one about three days before its death was seized with apparent 

 insanity, and continued to run backwards and forwards in a semicircular path it had 

 beaten in the grass before its house from morning till night, and probably in the night 

 too ; they appear to run as if for life, and evidently ran the life out of themselves, as 



