Menag 
ZOOLOGY. 491 
of the flesh was eaten from his tail, and the temporal and masseter 
muscles and eye of one side, were removed, so that the under jaw 
hung loose. The temporal was torn loose from the cranium on 
the other side, and as I watched him, the Blarina cut the other 
side of the mandible loose, and began to tear the longicolli and 
rectus muscles. His motions were quite frantic,and he jerked and 
tore out considerable fragments with his long anterior teeth. He 
seemed especially anxious to get down the snake’s throat (where 
some of his kin had probably “gone before”), and revolved on his 
long axis, now with his belly up, now with his sides, in his ener- 
getic efforts. He had apparently not been bitten by the snake, 
and was uninjured. Whether the shrew killed the snake is of 
course uncertain, but the animus with which he devoured the rep- 
tile gives some color to the suspicion that he in some way fright- 
ened him to exhaustion.—E. D. Core. 
Birtas ar tue Centran Park ZooLocicaL Garpen. — Lion 
(Felis leo). Two cubs born January 25, 1875 (this is the second 
time that lions have bred on the Park) ; period of gestation six- 
teen weeks ; the body indistinctly spotted, long black hairs being 
Scattered over the head ; born blind. 
Lions -are more prolific than any other species of Felis; after 
the first litter the number produced is seldom less than four. It 
is a well known fact, that these animals breed more freely in trav- 
elling menageries than in zoological gardens, the change of air no 
doubt having considerable influence in producing this result. The 
Director of the Dublin Zoological Gardens has been more success- 
ful than any other Director in Europe in breeding lions. They 
have never been able to raise young lions in the London Zoological 
Gardens. Dr. Bartlett, the Superintendent of the Gardens, in a 
Paper read to the Society, says : — 
the Regent’s Park. T perfection consists in the roof of the 
mouth being open. The palatal bones do not meet, the animal is 
unable t k, and consequently always dies. is abnorm 
Produced these malformed young, the cause of which appears to 
me quite unaccountable.” —W. A. Campen, Director, Central Park 
erie. 
