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drawings had given me a very imperfect conception. They are more bulky animals, and of a darker colour than I had supposed, and the thickness of the folds of their impenetrable skin much surpasses all which I had expected. These at Lucknow are quiet and gentle animals, except that one of them has a feud with horses. They seem to propagate in captivity without reluctance, and I should conceive might be available to carry burthens as well as the elephant, except that as their pace is still slower than his, their use could only be applicable to very great weights, and very gentle travelling. These have sometimes had howdahs on them, and were once fastened in a carriage, but only as an experiment, which was never followed up."-vol. ii.

And in the third volume, he observes: "In passing through the city I saw two very fine hunting-tigers in silver chains; and a rhinoceros, (the present of Lord Amherst to the Guicwar,) which is so tame as to be ridden by a Mohout quite as patiently as an elephant."

The able translator of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom observes : "The power of this species is frequently displayed to a surprising degree when hunting it. A few years ago, a party of Europeans with their native attendants and elephants, when out on the dangerous sport of hunting these animals, met with a herd of seven of them, led, as it appeared, by one larger and stronger than the rest. When the large rhinoceros charged the hunters, the leading elephants, instead of using their tusks or weapons, which in ordinary cases they are ready enough to do, wheeled round and received the blow of the rhinoceros's horn upon the posteriors; the blow brought them immediately to the ground with their riders, and as soon as they had risen, the brute was again ready, and again brought them down; and in this manner did the contest continue until four out of the seven were killed, when the rest made good their retreat.

"By comparing the tenour of these short observations of them in their wild condition and in a state of confinement, we may gather sufficient data on which to form a tolerable estimate of the character of these animals. Endowed with amazing powers of body,-powers which can repel, if not overcome the active ferocity of the lion and the ponderous strength of the elephant, but at the same time seeking their sustenance not by the destruction of animal life, but in the profuse banquet of the vegetable kingdom, they might naturally be expected to avail themselves of their physical power principally in self-defence. Accordingly we find that to the first aggressor the rhinoceros is a terrible enemy; but if left to

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the ordinary bent of his own inclination,-if unmolested, in short, he does not wantonly seek occasion to exercise his strength to the injury of other creatures."*

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THE galvanic electricity of the gymnotus causes a sensation which can hardly be said to be specifically distinct from that which is occasioned by the conductor of an electrical machine, a Leyden jar, or even the voltaic pile. The same observation has been made respecting the torpedo, or electric ray. In the gymnotus, however, the difference that does exist is the more striking in proportion as the shocks are greater. No man exposes himself rashly to the first discharges of a strong and highly irritated gymnotus. If, by accident, a shock be received before the fish is wounded or tired out by the pursuit, this shock is so painful, that it is impossible even to find an expression to describe the nature of the sensation. I do not remember to have ever experienced, from the discharge of a large-sized Leyden jar, a shock so dreadful as one which I received on placing my feet on a gymnotus which had just been drawn out of the water. I felt during the rest of the day an acute pain in the knees, and in almost every joint of the body. A blow upon the stomach, a stone falling on the head, a violent electric explosion, produce instantly the same effect. We distinguish nothing when the whole nervous system is affected at once. To experience the difference believed to exist between the sensations produced by the voltaic pile

* Griffiths' Cuvier, vol. iii.

THE GYMNOTUS, OR ELECTRICAL EEL.

29 and electrical fishes, the latter must be touched when they are reduced to a state of extreme weakness. In that case we observe, that the electrical eels and torpedos cause twitchings of the muscles (subsultus tendinum), which are propagated along the arm, from the part resting on the electric organ up to the elbow. This trembling, which is not visible externally, slightly resembles the very slight commotions produced by our artificial electrical apparatuses. M. Bayon, some time ago, was struck with this difference; and the common people, to characterize the nature of this extraordinary sensation, still confound, so to say, the cause with the effect, and call the gymnotus, Tremblador in the Spanish colonies, and Anguille tremblante in French Guiana. In fact, on touching these electrical fishes, we seem to feel at every shock a vibration, an internal trembling, which lasts for two or three seconds, and which is followed by a painful numbness.

If the sensation which is experienced on the contact of the electric eel be different from that which is produced by the voltaic pile or Leyden jar, it is, however, very analogous to the pain caused by applying zinc and silver to wounds on the back and on the hand. These wounds, which I have myself made-one by means of the blistering fly, and the other by a slight incision-have furnished abundant and convincing proof of the relations which exist between the effect of electrical fishes, and that of the galvanic current established by the application of different metals upon the human body.

After having handled gymnoti for four hours consecutively, we felt, even till the next morning, a pain in the joints of the extremities, a debility in the muscles, and a general uneasiness, which was, without doubt, the consequence of a long and violent irritation of the whole nervous system. M. Van der Lott, surgeon at Essequibo, has published in Holland a Memoir on the Medical Properties of the Electrical Eel. Mr. Bancroft assures us, that at Demerara they are employed for the cure of paralytic subjects; but in the Spanish colonies they know nothing of this property in the gymnotus. The ancients, however, made use of the galvanic electricity of the torpedo, according to Scribonius Largus, in cases of head-ache, megrims, and gout. And such is all we know respecting medical electricity among the Greeks and the savages of America.

Persons most accustomed to electric shocks support, with repugnance, those given by a torpedo one foot four inches in length; but the power of a gymnotus is ten times greater, as we have seen by its effect upon horses. It often happens, in taking young crocodiles of two or three feet in length, and

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THE GYMNOTUS, OR ELECTRICAL EEL.

little fishes in the same net with gymnoti, that the fishes are found dead, and the crocodile expiring. The Indians, in such cases, say that the young crocodile had not time to tear the net, because the gymnotus had paralysed and put him hors du combut. These terrible fishes, although carnivorous and of an aspect hideous as the serpent, are nevertheless in some measure docile, and naturally of a peaceable disposition. Much less active than our eels, they readily accustom themselves to their new prison; they eat everything that is offered them, but without manifesting a great voracity. They do not discharge their violent shocks unless irritated; and then especially if tickled along the under part of the body, at the transparent part of the electric organs, at the pectoral fin, the lips, the eyes, and especially if the skin be touched near the gill-cover. All these parts seem to be the most sensible, for here the skin is thinnest and least loaded with fat.

Fishes and reptiles which have never before felt the shocks of a gymnotus, do not seem to be warned of their danger by any particular instinct. Although its form and size are rather imposing, a little tortoise which we put into the same tub approached it with confidence; it wanted to hide itself under the eel's belly; but scarcely had it touched it with the end of one of its feet, when it received a shock, too feeble, indeed, to kill it, but strong enough to make it retire as far away as possible. From that moment the tortoise would no longer remain in the vicinity of the torpedo. And so, in all the pools or streamlets which it inhabits, one finds very few fishes of any other species. The gymnotus often kills without devouring its victim. It instinctively regards as an enemy everything that approaches it. Like a cloud surcharged with the electric fluid, he comes upon the fish he means to destroy; when at a short distance from it, he rests for a few seconds, necessary perhaps to prepare the storm that is to burst, and then hurls his thunder against his devoted enemy.' -From the Voyage of Humbolt and Bonpland.

[The remainder of these observations, with the mode of taking the gymnotus by the natives, will be given in a future Number].

THE CUCKOO.

To the Editor of the Zoological Magazine.

SIR, Liverpool, December 4, 1832. ABOUT the middle of July 1829 I got possession of a young cuckoo, about half-fledged; and on account of its insatiable

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appetite I could never give it sufficient food, and my ears were incessantly dinned with its call. Very few days afterwards a young cock thrush came into my hands; and it being soon able to feed itself, for the sake of convenience I put the birds together into one large cage. They were not long together before the cuckoo scrambled up to the thrush and began its call, and continued it for several hours. I observed the thrush take a piece of meat towards its companion; and the idea occurred to me that if I left them alone, the thrush would feed it. I left the door of the room a little open, and did not wait watching long before I saw the young thrush feed the cuckoo. From this time I never had any more trouble; the cuckoo grew fat and healthy, and the thrush seemed quite satisfied with its state of servitude. Afterwards I determined to try if the cuckoo required all the help it received, and removed the thrush. In a few minutes I observed the cuckoo (apparently without any difficulty,) helping itself. In about a week I again replaced the thrush, and the cuckoo found its voice again and forgot how to take care of itself. The thrush did not relish its occupation; and it was not until after it had received a severe beating, and one of its eyes nearly torn out of its head, that it would feed the cuckoo again. The injury that the thrush received in its eye was the cause of its death a few weeks after. Since this experiment, I have been anxious to know what birds will attend to the cuckoo's cry; and I found the lark would sometimes do so, but more frequently beat it, and the cuckoo died of ill usage. A linnet which I placed with another cuckoo did its duty well for some time, but at last let the cuckoo die of neglect.-Perhaps some of your readers will follow up these experiments with me, that we may compare notes.

About the middle of September I was awakened by the constant fluttering the cuckoo made in its cage, which at night I always placed in my bed-room. After repeated watching at night, I found that from shortly after sun-set to a little before sun-rise, this bird for nearly a month continued to wave its wings as if in flight; and sometimes, as if forgetting that it was confined, it would hit its head against the top of the cage. I have no doubt it was instinct teaching it to quit our country, as during the period of its would-be emigration it was very quiet all day, but as soon as it was over, it became as lively, active, and noisy as ever.

Can any of your readers inform me where the cuckoo goes to? I find there are three kinds at the Cape of Good Hope during the summer, one very similar to that which

visits us.

W. C.

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