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they should be clothed. During the last week the cold has been much greater than they have hitherto experienced; but they have, thanks to the kindness of Mr. Bourchier, everything that can be desired.

These four giraffes, three males and one female, are so interesting and so beautiful, that I shall exert myself to the utmost to be of use to them. It is possible that they may breed; already I observe in them some tendency towards mutual attachment. They are capable of walking for six hours a day without the slightest fatigue."

This letter was written at Malta some months ago; and now here they are, all alive and well, with their attendant Nubians. If that in the possession of our French neighbours should die, an event, we regret to find, not unlikely to happen, the Zoological Society will be the sole European proprietors of living specimens of this rare and delicate species. The council deserve credit for the judgment and liberality manifested in the attainment of this difficult object, nor is less praise due to M. Thibaut for the zeal, skill, and perseverance with which he has seconded their views. Our limits will not permit us to enter into any antiquarian details on the subject of the giraffe or xariffa. The first shown at Rome seems to have made its appearance in the dictatorship of Cæsar.* But afterwards the animal was exhibited in the Roman circus. The third Gordian possessed ten at one time. It seems to have disappeared from Europe for some centuries; and fable, as is usual in such cases, was busy with it. It is pleasant to look upon these, the realities, after turning to some of the old books of travels. Thus, in Purchas, the animal is described as 'a beast not often seene, yet very tame, and of a strange composition, mixed of a libard, harte, buffe, and camell; and by reason of his long legs before and shorter behind, not able to graze without difficultie, but with his high head which he can stretch forth half a pike's length in height, feeds on the leaves and boughs of trees.' Belon in his Portraits de quelques animaux, &c., d'Arabie, Egypte, et Asie,'‡ gives no very bad cut of the giraffe, with the following superscription: Protrait de la giraffe, nommée en latin, camelopardalis: les Arabes l'appellent Zurnapa.' Beneath the figure is this quatrain :

Belles de corps les giraffes, et doulces,
Ont en maintien du chameau la maniere,

Leurs pieds sont haults devant et bas derriere :
Poil blanc et roux : cornes courtes et mousses.'

Rosellini, in his great work on Egypt, gives the representation of a led giraffe with a monkey climbing up its neck as if it had formed part of a procession or pompa.

+ Book vi. c. i.

+ 4ta., 1557.

Pas

Pas si bête for such early times; but the legs, as is correctly observed by Le Vaillant, have, in general, the proportion of those of other quadrupeds, the difference between the fore and hind parts lying in the height of the withers.

Leaving the tapirs coolly taking their bath while all the world is melting around them, we enter the limbus of macaucos, squirrels, mice, and such small deer,' nor must we omit the chinchilla whose spoils so well adorn and protect our fair countrywomen. The door opposite to the entrance leads to the apartment where lived alas! that we must write lived-the most amiable of Quasimodos, the chimpanzee!

Quando ullum inveniet parem?

Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit,

Nulli flebilior quam tibi-Theodore!

Peace to his manes! We must take a turn amid the Reeves's pheasants, the peacocks, the curassows, and the other lively denizens of the north aviary, to calm our feelings. How varied are the poultry both the Indies have contributed their share; and the jungle-fowls, from which some of the best zoologists insist that all the varieties have proceeded, shine pre-eminent. The discrepancy between these, especially Sonnerat's jungle-fowl, the Gallus Bankiva, and their alleged descendants, is strongly marked, and has made many hesitate to adopt the opinion of Temminck and others; but those familiar with the consequences of a long series of years passed under the improving eye of man will be less startled at the proposition.* That well-known performer who is to be found caged in every house where the inmates are fond of song-birds is so changed by domestication, that, like the dog, it has assumed varieties almost endless, and, in some instances, so different from the original stock, that the captive would now be hardly recognized as a descendant of the birds singing free' in the happy valleys of the Canary Islands.

The forest monarch's roar' reminds us that the great repository and the dogs are still unvisited; but we must return through the tunnel and view the finest collection of parrots ever assembled. Open your eyes and shut your ears-was there ever such an assemblage of rainbow colours-was there ever such a distracting din! We should have thought it indescribable, had not Aristophanes in a chorus of the Birds' hit it off to a nicety.

Τοροτοροτοροτοροτοροτίγξ
Κικκαζον κικκαβα
Τοροτοροτοροτολιλιλίγξ-

* Sonnerat considered that his jungle-fowl, Gallus Sonneratii, was the origin of our domestic poultry; but Temminck denies this, and makes Gallus Bankiva the common patriarch.

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Mark that elegant parrakeet with its pure golden plumage. It is a variety of Palæornis torquatus which is placed beside it. Observe it on the hand of its favourite keeper, expressing its fondness by a thousand winning ways. It is formed to be the delicia of some beauty. Its delicate shape and hue would well grace her fair hand, and the murmuring caresses of its coral beak would be better lavished on her sweet lip than our worthy friend's bristly chin.

Quitting the parrot-house we come upon the breeding ponds, where may be seen, side by side, two lovely forms, one from the east and the other from the far west. The gorgeous mandarin drake*-but he is hardly worthy of a look now. It is in the very early spring when he appears full-dressed in his plumage de noces, that he throws all other ducks, or rather drakes, into the shade, not excepting the beautiful Americant-the summer duck'— that swims near him.

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Now to the palace of the monkeys, ever active, prying, and mischievous. Those of about the same size engaged in a scuffling fight for a nut-the larger tyrannizing over the smaller-some swinging by their tails-others by their hands-all busy, all chattering, except that silent little group in the corner, looking on with philosophic melancholy, but still unable to repress a sigh at their own nutless condition; they have so often had their nuts, when fortune has thrown them perchance in their way, abstracted by the strong hand, with a cuff and a bite in lieu of them, that they have at last retired from the scramble, hopeless, and resigned. If any visitor be disposed to refresh their spirits, let him tender his snuff-box, and keep off the stronger boys with his cane.

But who can look at apes when monkey green' is crowded with England's richest beauty. Here is every variety of clear complexion ce beau sang, as we once heard an impassioned Frenchman ejaculate in his admiration at the scene, with such an emphasis on the beau, as none but a Frenchman can give-every hue of flowing hair, from the gold sunshine of the delicate blonde, with a skin like paper before the priest has stained it with his black unguent,' to the intense darkness of the raven tresses that arch the brent brow from beneath which shoot the penetrating glances of the bonnie black e'e. We, being sober and cautious Tories, must tear ourselves away from these breathing roses,' and proceed to the flower-garden; for a very pretty flower-garden it is.

*Anas galericulata.

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Those who know that it was only commenced in 1835, and remember the show of dahlias in the last autumn, the star of crocuses this spring, and the general well-kept-up succession of bloom, will be inclined to think that Mr. Sabine possesses the lamp of Aladdin. We give him our hearty thanks for this treat, and we only wish that he could have heard the praises that many a fair creature, 'candidior cycnis,' has bestowed upon the work. If we might venture on a hint, we would suggest some leafy screen to the southward, which might be so managed as not to shut out the view; for we have seen the fine collection of dahlias suffering greatly from the blustering autumnal winds. A flower border to the southward of the great walk would be also an improvement. But it is very beautiful as it is, and we can hardly account for the jaundiced eye with which some-they are not many-look upon everything belonging to the Society. Not that we object to a little grumbling-it is the Englishman's privilege, and stimulates to improvement-but there has been rather too much unscrupulous assertion, and a spirit has been exhibited that bodes the Society no good.

We trust that there will be an end to these disturbances, which do not seem to have reflected much credit on the promoters. We should remember that it is the gale of fashion, more fickle than any

'the shipman's card,' that has hitherto borne the Society so prosperously along: if it become adverse, all will go to wreck; and we do hope that the fellows will cordially co-operate to sustain, in its present commanding position, one of the first establishments in Europe; an establishment which has done more for zoology in England, during the few years of its existence, than had been effected in a century before. With correspondents in every part of the world, sending home rare animals and interesting papers, the Zoological Society may fearlessly say, with her geological and geographical sisters,

Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris.'

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Already the provinces exhibit the influence of the parent society. To say nothing of The Surrey,' one of the prettiest lounges in the neighbourhood of London, and surpassingly rich in carnivora, the societies of Liverpool, Dublin, and Bristol have all sprung up. The more the better. These are the recreations worthy of a reflecting people, and the more widely they are disseminated, the wiser and the more civilized will the people become. No observer can look upon the endless variety of forms pre

*These animals seem to thrive so much better on the Surrey side than in the Regent's Park, that we cannot but think the differences in the modes of feeding, &c., should be narrowly inquired into-but we fear the great evil is the London clay. sented

sented in such establishments, without being struck with the wonderful adaptation of means to an end manifested in each; and the deeper he goes into the science, the more will he be obliged to confess that all are 'fearfully and wonderfully made.'

But the subject is inexhaustible, and we are apprehensive, gentle reader, that, in our affection for a favourite hobby, we have been riding him about a little too much at your expense-though we have passed by many, many living rarities entirely unheeded. Retiring, then, by the southern gate, which lets us into what will, when the trees are tall enough to give instead of receiving shelter from Christians, be the finest mall in all England, we quit the Garden-but not without a longing, lingering look behind'Floreat!

ART. III.-Geschichte Roms in seinem Uebergange von der republikanischen zur monarchischen Verfassung, oder Pompejus, Caesar, Cicero, und ihre Genossen, nach Geschlechten, und mit genealogischen Tabellen. Von W. Drumann, Professor der Geschichte zu Königsberg. Königsberg, 1834-5, 1 et 2 theil. -The History of Rome during its Transition from a Republican to a Monarchical Constitution; or Pompey, Cæsar, Cicero, and their Contemporaries, according to their Races, with Genealogical Tables. By W. Drumann, Professor of History at Königsberg.

THESE volumes will be of great service to the writer who shall attempt to accomplish, in a manner worthy of the subject, the work which we ventured to suggest in a former Number-a history of Rome, to connect Niebuhr and Gibbon;-the Grandeur et Décadence' of the Roman republic. The singular form in which Professor Drumann has cast his laborious and profound researches, however valuable and, indeed, intrinsically interesting to the scholar or the writer of history, will prevent its general popularity, and limit its usefulness among the ordinary class of readers. It is a legitimate and frequently successful artifice in historical painting, to select some commanding representative of the period which we would describe-as the central figure of the design; to group around it all the subordinate characters of the time in their proportionate size and relief, and to arrange all the events, and even colour the opinions of the day, in their relation to this main subject. There is no necessity to sacrifice either the truth or the fulness of the narrative to this bearing on one particular character of the period. The historian may maintain the most rigid impartiality not only in the general judgment

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