These specimens, however, are dead, and we are not aware that at present there is a living Chinchilla in England. THE SPIDER MONKEY. THE Coaita, or Spider Monkey, is so called from the extraordinary length of its extremities, and its poses of a hand, and the animal throws itself about from branch to branch, sometimes swinging from the foot, sometimes by the hand, but oftener, and with a greater reach, by the tail. The extremity of the tail is covered only with skin, forming an organ of touch as discriminating as the hand. It inhabits the woods of South America, associating in great multitudes; assailing such travellers as pass through their haunts, with an infinite number of sportive and mischievous gambols; chattering, and throwing down dry sticks, swinging by their tails, and endeavouring to intimidate the passengers by a variety of menacing gestures. Its general colour is black, except the face, which is a dark flesh-colour. upon the roots of various bulbous plants, which grow abundantly in those parts, and produces, twice a year, five or six young ones. It is so docile and mild in temper, that! if taken into the hands it neither bites nor tries to escape, but seems to take a pleasure in being caressed. If placed in the bosom, it remains there as still and quiet as if it were in its own nest. This ex-motions. The tail answers the purtraordinary placidity may possibly be rather due to its timid nature. As it is in itself peculiarly cleanly, there can be no fear of its soiling the clothes of those who handle it, or its communicating any bad smell to them, for it is entirely free from that ill odour which characterizes the other species of rats. For this reason it might well be kept in the houses with no annoyance, and at a trifling expense, which would be abundantly repaid by the profit on its wool. The ancient Peruvians, who were far more industrious than the modern, made of this wool coverlets for beds and valuable stuffs. Subsequent to the arrival of the specimen we have already mentioned, another individual was added to the collection of the Society; this differed somewhat in the colour of its fur from the first, and was also larger. When the new-comer was first introduced into Brutonstreet, it was placed in the same cage with the other specimen, but the latter appeared by no means disposed to submit to the presence of the intruder. A ferocious kind of scuffling fight immediately ensued between them, and the latter would unquestionably have fallen a victim, had it not been rescued from its impending fate. Since that time they have inhabited separate cages, placed side by side, and although the open wires would admit of some little familiarity taking place between them, no advances have as yet been made on either side. CHETODON. THE Chaetodon rostratus, (from chate, hair; odon, a tooth; and rostratus, beaked,) affords a curious instance of the precision of the eye, and of the adaptation of muscular action. It is a fish, about six or eight inches long, which inhabits the Indian rivers, and lives on the smaller aquatic flies. When it observes one alighted on a twig, or flying near, (for it can shoot them on the wing, (it darts a drop of water with so steady an aim, as to bring the fly down into the water, when it falls an easy prey. These fishes are kept in large vases for amusement, and if a fly be presented on the end of a twig, they will shoot at it with surprising accuracy. In its natural state, it will hit a fly at the distance of from three to six feet.-SIR CHARLES BELL on the Hand. A RHINOCEROS ATTACKED BY ELEPHANTS. pursuer and his horse from the ground, and dash them in pieces against the surrounding trees." Of the two species of this animal, one is called the bicornis, or twohorned, and the other the unicornis, or one-horned: the latter has been supposed to be the unicorn of Scrip ture. The former is, I believe, THE Rhinoceros is the least in- peculiar to Africa: it is never telligent of the larger quadrupeds. known in India, where the oneFierce and intractable, it is at all horned Rhinoceros alone is found. times very formidable, as well to Its size is only inferior to that of animals, as to man. Being pro- the elephant, although it is contected by nature with a skin like a siderably smaller. Its bulk, howcoat of armour, it commits the ever, is greater in proportion to greatest devastations with impunity. its height; and, from its superior It is a native both of Asia and of courage and activity, it is a much Africa, though the species found in more formidable creature. Its head the two countries greatly differ; resembles that of a pig; and it has the Rhinoceros of Africa having two two small, dull eyes, which give it horns on the snout, while that of an appearance at once stupid and Asia has only one. Of the former, intractable. Mr Bruce says, Its length, not in"When pursued, cluding the tail, is from eleven to and in fear, the Rhinoceros pos- twelve feet, and the circumference sesses an astonishing degree of swift-of its body about the same; though ness, considering his size, the appa- it is said sometimes to exceed this rent unwieldiness of his body, his standard. It occasionally, though great weight before, and the short- rarely, attains to the height of seven ness of his legs. He is long, and feet, and is amazingly strong; while has a kind of trot, which, after a its skin is so hard and thick, as to few minutes, increases, in a great be generally impervious to a musproportion, and takes in a great dis- ket-ball. The hide is curiously tance. It is not true that on a plain divided into sections, and the difhe beats the horse in swiftness. I ferent divisions are adapted with have passed him with ease, and seen such exquisite precision, as to have many more mounted do the same; the appearance, at a short distance, and though it is certainly true that of a beautiful coat of mail. It is a horse can very seldom come up extremely rough, and offers so with him, this is owing to his cun- complete a resistance to the touch, ning, not to his swiftness. He as not to yield in the slightest degree passes constantly from wood to to the strongest pressure. The only wood, and forces himself into the vulnerable parts are the belly, the thickest parts of them. The dry eyes, and near the ears. trees are broken down as with a cannon-shot, and fall about him in all directions. Others that are more pliable, greener, and fuller of sap, are bent back by its weight and the velocity of his motion; and, after he has passed, restoring themselves like a green branch to their natural position, they sweep the incautious This animal is of very sequestered habits: it traverses the most impenetrable jungles alone, and is the terror of every creature with which it comes in contact, although it seldom attacks unless provoked by aggression. The horn upon its nose, which is thick and pointed, curves upwards towards the forehead, form ing an acute angle with the bone of the snout, and projecting from it about thirty inches. It is a most fearful weapon; so much so, that even the colossal elephant has been frequently laid prostrate by a welldirected stroke from the armed head of this terrible adversary. The horn does not adhere to the bone, but when the Rhinoceros is in its ordinary state, stands loose between the nostrils; the moment, however, the animal is excited to resistance by the approach or attack of a foe, the muscular tension is so great that the horn instantly becomes immoveably fixed, and he is able to dart it into the trunk of a tree to the depth of several inches. The upper lip of the Rhinoceros is of great length, and remarkably pliant, acting like a sort of proboscis, by which he grasps the roots of trees, and other esculent substances, and it is capable of contraction or expansion, as circumstances may require. "With this lip,) says Bruce," and the assistance of his tongue, he pulls down the upper branches which have most leaves, and these he devours first. Having stripped the tree of its branches, he does not directly abandon it; but, placing his snout as low in the trunk as he finds his horn will enter, he rips up the body of the tree, and reduces it to thin pieces, like so many laths; and when he has thus prepared it, he embraces as much as he can of it in his monstrous jaws, and twists it round with as much ease as an ox would do a root of celery." The female generally produces only a single young one at a birth, which attains to a full state of maturity in about fifteen years. The Rhinoceros is so stupid, and of so savage a disposition, that it seems to exist merely to gratify a voracious appetite. It is the terror of its native woods, and if it had been a gregarious animal, would have been a terrible scourge to the countries in which it is found. When excited, it displays paroxysms of fury which render it highly dangerous for any one to approach. As it is of a temper much less mild than the elephant, it is far more formidable when exasperated, on account of its greater activity and more desperate ferocity. The voraciousness of this creature is extraordinary; it will consume as much as an elephant, and is always very fierce if intruded upon whilst feeding. A young Rhinoceros, only two years old, sent from Bengal in 1739, cost a thousand pounds sterling for food, including the expenses of its passage. When the Rhinoceros and Elephant meet, which is not very often the case, the conflict is terrific. The former will stand his ground, even though surrounded by a herd of elephants, by which indeed he is generally destroyed, though not without making a desperate resistance. He will frequently inflict a mortal wound upon one or two before he is subdued. The Elephant, therefore, always approaches him with extreme reluctance: if the Rhinoceros succeeds in making good his stroke at his huge adversary, it generally proves fatal; his horn, ploughing through the side, exposes the intestines, and the gigantic creature falls dead. If, however, the Elephant is successful in preventing the rush of his enemy, he receives him upon his tusks, which inflict too severe a wound to enable the Rhinoceros to renew the encounter. The timidity of the Elephant generally causes it to have the worst in conflicts with this mailed foe, so that the latter is seldom molested, and consequently roams at large as the monarch of the jungle; even the tiger and the lion shun him, as an enemy not to be provoked without peril. peror of the Moguls, and is to be found in his autobiography, translated by Dr Leyden and Mr Erskine. The following account of the naghar, as well as between the Rhinoceros is extremely curious, rivers Sind and Behreh, in the being by the celebrated Baher, Em-jungles. In Hindostan too they abound, on the banks of the river Sirwu. In the course of my expedition into Hindostan, in the jungles of Pershâwer and Hashnaghar, I frequently killed the Rhinoceros. It strikes powerfully with its horn, with which, in the course of these hunts, many men and horses were gored.”—J. H. C. "The Rhinoceros," writes this remarkable man, "is a huge animal; its bulk is equal to that of three buffaloes. The opinion prevalent in our countries, that a Rhinoceros can lift an Elephant on its horn, is probably a mistake. It has a single horn over its nose, upwards of a span in length, but I never saw one of two spans. Out of one of the largest of these horns I had a drinking-vessel* made, and a dice-box, and about three or four fingers' bulk of it might be left. Its hide is very thick: if it be shot at with a powerful bow, drawn up to the arm-pit with much force, and if the arrow pierces at all, it enters only three or four fingers' breadth. They say, however, that there are parts of his skin that may be pierced, and the arrows enter deep. On the sides of its two shoulder-blades and of its two thighs, are folds which hang loose, and appear at a distance like cloth housings dangling over it. It bears more resemblance to the horse than to any other animal. As the horse has a large stomach, so this;-as the pastern of the horse is composed of a single bone, so also is that of the Rhinoceros;-as there is a gumek in the horse's fore-leg, so is there in that of the Rhinoceros. It is more ferocious than the elephant, and cannot be rendered so tame or obedient. There are numbers of them in the jungles of Pershawer and Hash has The Rhinoceros' horn was supposed to sweat on the approach of poison, a quality which fitted it, in a peculiar manner, for being made into a drinking cup for an eastern king. It has more the appearance of a huge overgrown hog. A marginal note on the Turki copy, translates gumek, marrow. LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANI MALS. FROM a brief view of the local distribution of animals and their various haunts, we see the care of Divine Providence, that no place, however, at first sight, apparently unfit, might be without its animal as well as vegetable population: if the hard rock is clothed with its lichen, the lichen has its inhabitant: and that inhabitant, besides affording an appropriate food to the bird that alights upon the rock, or some parasite that has been hatched in forming a soil upon it. There is or upon its own body, assists in no place so horrible and fetid from unclean and putrid substances, that is not cleansed and purified by some animals that are either its constant or nomadic inhabitants. Thus life, a life attended in most cases, if not all, with some enjoyment, swarms everywhere,-in the air, in the earth, under the earth, in the waters, there is no place, in which the will of an Almighty Creator is not executed by some being that hath animal life. What Power is manifested in the organi zation and structure of these infinite hosts of existences! what wisdom in their adaptation to their several functions! and what goodness and stupendous love in that universal action upon all these dif ferent and often discordant crea- | some growing vegetable, a thistle, tures; compelling them, while they a beanstalk, or some adjoining are gratifying their own appetites stems of wheat, with which it rocks or passions, and following the lead and waves in the wind; but to preof their several instincts, to promote vent the young from being disthe good of the whole system, com- lodged by any violent agitation of bining into harmony almost uni- the plant, the parent closes up the versal discord, and out of seeming entrance so uniformly with the death and destruction bringing forth whole fabric, that the real opening life, and health, and universal joy! is with difficulty found. This nest He who, as an ancient writer is most artificially platted, and speaks, "Contains all things," can composed of blades of wheat, nearly alone thus act upon all things, and round, and about the size of a direct them in all their ways to cricket-ball; it is so compact and acknowledge him by the accom- well closed, that it can be rolled plishment of each wise and bene- across a table without being inficent purpose of his will. Philo jured. The female has as many Judæus, in his book upon agricul- as eight or nine in a litter, and if ture, speaking of those words of some cause which we cannot unthe Psalmist, The Lord is my shep-derstand, did not prevent their inherd, therefore can I lack nothing, crease, we should soon be overrun has the following sublime idea, il- with them. lustrative of this subject. "God, like a shepherd and king, leads, according to right and law, the earth, and the water, and the air, and the fire, and whatever plants or animals are therein, things mortal and things divine; the physical structure also of the heavens, and the circuit of the sun and moon; the revolutions and harmonious choirs of the other stars; placing over them his right word the firstborn Son, who hath inherited the care of this holy flock, as the viceroy of a mighty king."-KIRBY's Bridgewater Treatise. THE HARVEST-MOUSE. THE Harvest-Mouse is the smallest of the British quadrupeds; so small is it, that a full-grown one weighs no more than sixty-five grains. Sometimes this is extremely common in the fields, and does much harm to the agriculturist by devouring the corn, but in general it is not met with in any great numbers. The nest of the HarvestMouse is a very singular construction; it is generally suspended on The following observations by the author of the Journal of a Naturalist, seem to bear upon this point. "Mankind appear to be progressively increasing. It was an original command of the Creator; and the animals domesticated by man, and fostered for his use, are probably multiplied in proportion to his necessities: but we have no reason to suppose that this annual augmentation proceeds in a proportionate degree with the wild creatures upon the surface of the globe; and we know that many of them are yearly decreasing, and very many that once existed have even become extinct. That there are years of increase and decrease ordained for all the inferior orders of the creation, common observation makes manifest. In the years 1819 and 1820 all the country about us was overrun with mice; they harboured under the hassocks of coarse grasses, perforated the banks of ditches, occasioned much damage by burrowing into our potato-heaps, and coursed in our gar dens from bed to bed even during |