HIPPOPOTAMI IN CYPRUS 
do so is of interest in this matter. Remains of hippopo- 
tami have been found in Madagascar, which is known 
to have been for zons separated from the African 
continent ; they must have originally got to that island 
by a marine route failing a land bridge, which latter of 
course accounts for their remains in Europe, Asia, and 
in the valley of the Thames. The same explanation 
may account for a recent and most exciting “ find” in 
the island of Cyprus. Plenteous bones of a hippopo- 
tamus have been unearthed in that island, which 
clearly belonged to quite a small animal, not larger than 
an average sized pig. It is striking as a fact of com- 
parison that Malta harboured in days gone by an equally 
tiny elephant. Thus a minute environment appears 
to produce in some cases a small frame in its inhabitants. 
There was great excitement at the Zoological Society 
on December 11, 1850, when a letter was read to the 
meeting announcing the sending of the first live hippo- 
potamus to the Gardens. It was presented by 
H.H. Abbas Pasha, who detached a guard of honour 
to bring the young beast into Cairo. It was there 
liberally treated with thirty quarts of milk daily. Since 
that year the Society has never been without hippo- 
potami. It isa testimony to the care bestowed upon 
wild animals at the Zoo, in the past as well as in the 
present, that the hippopotamus has bred so often at 
the Gardens. On no less than three occasions have 
young been born, one young male in 1871 and two 
females in 1872. Since then the animal has been reared 
in other Zoological gardens, for example at Amsterdam. 
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