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verted to, and making sad havoc with a patch, the poor Arab to whom the melons belonged, on proceeding to drive him away, was caught in its huge jaws, and instantly crushed to death.

Dampier and others have stated that the hippopotamus when wounded or irritated is "violently ferocious," and it has been known to sink a boat with its bite, but ordinarily it certainly is not to be ranked amongst savage animals.

The first hippopotamus brought to England arrived in May, 1850, at the gardens of the Zoological Society. Indeed, since the Imperial Exhibitions in the Circus at Rome no living specimen had ever been seen Europe.

The Viceroy of Egypt despatched an expedition to the Upper Nile expressly for the purpose of making this capture, success not having been gained until 2,000 miles of the river had been ascended. In the month of July, 1849, the chief huntsman of the party, in searching the reedy margin of an island on the White Nile called Obaysch, at last discovered a little hippopotamus calf, which, as he conjectured had then been born about two days. It was so small, that the man in his delight at having accomplished the Pasha's order, seized it in his arms, and would have carried it to the boat which waited on him, had not the slimy exudation which is lavishly poured forth from innumerable pores in the skin of the young hippopotamus rendered it so slippery that he was entirely unable to retain his hold. The animal having thus slipped from his grasp, all but escaped into the Nile, where the mother doubtless was lying near at hand. The huntsman, however, with the sharp side-hook of his spear secured it. After a four months' voyage it arrived at Cairo, being consigned to the charge of the British Minister, the nourishment afforded it being cow's milk, of which it consumed 30 quarts daily.

The animal attains a great size, a female specimen imported a few years after weighing, at four months old, about a ton; and Hasselquist states that the hide of a full-grown hippopotamus is a load for a camel.

MY LADY'S HOBBY.

It is well that the lady and her cavalier are put in a by-gone costume; for hawking is a sport that has almost died out from amongst us. In these breech-loading days and bags of hundreds and thousands, the sportsman would be scarcely content with the doings of the best-trained falcons, whilst the gradual inclosure of the country is of itself inimical to the practice of such a pastime. It has so happened that in place of being prized as heretofore, the beautiful Peregrines and Merlins have come to figure as vermin on the keeper's tree, and the Grand Falconer of England, like the Champion of England, is not overburdened with the business of his department,

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1101 les the preons coming Iya marre night; so that Te jade, of whose presence RET B great excitement,

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ragione hauls the first place amongst the In winter it resorts to the turnip-fields, where es: bas it also feeds on the turnips themMites, where they are briken by hires or rabbits. The leaves are said impan a dsagreeie taste to the fesh of the bird; but this is eusly prevented by using on the erop as soon as the pigeon is killed, ani i seharging the contents. No bird in this country seems to resort to so many diferent trees and shrubs for the purpose of incubation as the ringleve: not a tree, from the lofty pine to the lowly thorn, ever comes amiss to it. There is something peculiarly singular in the locality of some of the rests. While one is seen placed near the top of the tofy pine, another may be found within a few feet of the ground, in the humble shelter of a hedge-row bush, and even in a bank or ledge of rock by the river side. They make a very slender nest, often only s few twigs laid together-just enough to keep the eggs from falling through; but Nature has provided for the eggs not to get chilled while the female is away feeding. Nearly all the feathered tribe make warm nests for their eggs, and can leave them for hours without much danger of their getting cold; and the male bird rarely takes part in the hatching; but the pigeon's frail nest will not allow the eggs to be left long exposed, so Nature has endowed the birds with the instinct to take turn-about in hatching, and even after the young are hatched the pigeon sits more constantly on the young ones than any other bird.

The salmon fishing on the Tay during the past month has been very poor indeed, and there will not likely be much done now with the rod

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