| OCR Text |
Show 1867.] DR. E. CRISP ON THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 689 which the writer describes the meeting of a number of male birds of this species, which he supposes were fighting and, as he says, making a most abominable noise. A similar meeting of male birds is mentioned by Mr. Wallace as taking place with the great Bird of Paradise. Mr. Wallace says the male birds assemble together upon the tops of the tallest trees and utter their loud and not very pleasing notes. This, together with what I have observed in captivity, both of the Menura and the smaller kind of Bird of Paradise, induced me to consider and search for other characters on which to found an opinion ; I therefore take the habits, voice, feathers, and their arrangement (see Nitzsch's Pterylography, pl. 3. figs. 11-13), together with the skeleton. Having examined the skeleton of the Menura together with that of the Bird of Paradise and a true Corvus, I must say in general that the Menura and Bird of Paradise present a stronger likeness to each other than either of them exhibit towards the genus Corvus. In the breadth and form of the skull the Menura and Bird of Paradise resemble each other remarkably. In conclusion, I have to remark that the strong and well-marked resemblance between these birds consists in the voice, food, and mode of breeding, the large size of the legs and feet, the form of the skull and skeleton, the structure of the feathers, and their arrangement on the body; and to this I may add, the bird belongs to the same geographical range as the true Paradise-bird : I regard it as an aberrant form, or rather as the terrestrial form, the true Paradise-bird being the arboreal form of the same group. 2. On the Form, Size, and Structure of the Viscera of the Hippopotamus, as compared with the same parts in the Members of the Pachyderm Family and in some other Animals. By E D W A R D S CRISP, M.D., F.Z.S. & c .- Part II. The inquiry I am about to institute is one of great interest; time, however, will only permit me to take a superficial glance at the subject. I may premise that, with the exception of the Rhinoceros and Babirussa, I have examined the visceral anatomy of all the pachyderms, weighed the various organs, and measured their size and capacity. I have also in m y museum casts and drawings of the different viscera. I will proceed with the examination as the subjects are arranged in m y last paper. Of the skin-glands of the pachyderms I am unable to make a comparative estimate, either from my own investigations or from the observations of other anatomists ; but in all these thick-skinned animals, especially in the Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Tapir, it is probable that large glands exist somewhat similar to those in the Hippopotamus, although I believe that none of the members |
