298 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
exclusively on vegetable matter, so that one kind of grass is always a sure 
indication of his proximity. At noon and eve he approaches the village 
plantations in search of plantains, occasionally uttering a wild cry, but 
which in rage becomes a sharp bark. By day he moves along the ground 
on all-fours, sometimes ascending trees ; and by night he selects a large 
tree as his sleeping-place. He is exceedingly wary and keen of scent. 
The female, when about to produce young, builds a nest of rude layers of 
dry sticks and small branches torn off from the trees by the hand. When 
wounded, or missed, as a rule they will charge on all-fours ; but the 
natives, being as nimble as apes, often escape. In the case of a man who 
had his hand crippled by the bite of a gorilla, the animal seized the wrist 
with his hind foot, and dragged the hand into his mouth as he would 
have done a bunch of plantains. Only traditional accounts exist of the 
gorilla having killed a man; and it is less feared than the leopard. 
The Gorilla in Liverpool. — So celebrated has this ape become, that the 
acquisition of a good specimen is an important event to a museum. The 
Free Public Museum of Liverpool has just acquired a specimen, superior, 
perhaps, to any in this country in size and excellence of preservation. 
An account of the arrival of this skin (which was presented to the 
museum by Mr. Duckworth) will be found in vol. i. p. 537. The same 
museum is particularly rich in illustrations of this animal, and possesses 
the largest gorilla-skeleton in Europe. 
It has been very currently reported that a young living gorilla has been 
exhibited at Liverpool. This, however, is an error ; the animal in question 
being only a chimpanzee. The only living gorilla which was ever imported 
into this country was in the possession of Mrs. Wombwell in 1855-56, 
and was examined by Mr. Moore, the curator of the Livei-pool Museum. 
It was very docile and active, and is now in the possession of Mr. Water- 
ton, forming one of the remarkable features of that gentleman’s museum 
at Walton Hall, where it has been seen and examined by the writer. 
The Unicorn. — The controversy concerning the existence of this animal 
still continues. The distinguished naturalist, Ruppell, received accounts 
many years back which inclined him to believe that some such animal 
existed in the deserts lying south of Kordofan. The zoological objection 
to the possibility of the existence of an animal with a single (true) horn 
on the middle of the forehead, is, that no such horn can grow upon a 
suture of the skull. It is believed, however, by some authorities that the 
male giraffe possesses a third horn, growing from the very centre of the 
frontal suture. 
The New British Snake. — The newly-discovered Coronella has again 
been taken in the New Forest, whence a female specimen was obtained 
and taken to Mr. F. Buckland. While in his possession it produced six 
young, two of which were drowned in the water placed in the cage ; the 
remainder appeared to be well cared for by the parent snake. It is thus 
proved that this reptile is, like the adder, viviparous. 
The King Crab (Limulus polyphemus) found at Dover. — This remarkable 
animal, the nearest living representative of the ancient trilobite, has lately 
been imported in some numbers into Liverpool, alive ; and also into 
London. One was taken to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, for pre- 
