Centuria Mirabilissima," not the least will be the vast number of
animals and birds introduced into Europe, and the great stride made in
our knowledge of Natural History during its progress. The precise date
of the extinction of a genus or a species has interest; the dodo of the
Mauritius and the dinornis of New Zealand have disappeared within the
historical period, and there is no reason to suppose that such gaps have
been, or will be, filled up by new creations. Second only in interest to
the occurrence of these blanks in the list of living inhabitants of the
surface of this globe is the record of the introduction of a new race
into a part of our planet where it was previously unknown. In such
instances the last twenty years have been prolific; the graceful
bower-birds and the _Tallegalla_ or mound-raising birds, those wondrous
denizens of the Australian wilderness, may now be seen in the Regent's
Park for the first time in this hemisphere. For the first time, also,
the wart hog of Africa there roots, and the hippopotamus displays his
quaint gambols; and that "fairest animal," the giraffe, is now beheld in
health and vigor, a naturalized inhabitant of Great Britain.

A giraffe presented by the Pasha of Egypt to the king of England, was
conveyed to Malta under the charge of two Arabs, and was from thence
forwarded to London in the "Penelope," which arrived on the 11th of
August, 1827. She was conveyed to Windsor two days afterward, and was
kept in the royal menagerie at the Sandpit-gate. George the Fourth took
much interest in this animal, visiting her generally twice or thrice a
week, and sometimes twice a day. It would have been better if he had
left her to the management of the keepers; but, acting on some vague
instructions left by the Arabs, his majesty commanded that she should be
fed on milk alone--a most unnatural diet when the animal had attained
the age of two years. From this cause, and in consequence of an injury
which she had received during her journey from Sennaar to Cairo, the
giraffe became so weak as to be unable to stand; a lofty triangle was
built, and the animal kept suspended on slings to relieve its limbs from
the support of its weight. The apparatus was provided with wheels, and,
in order that she might have exercise, it was pushed along by men, her
feet just moving and touching the ground. It may well be supposed that
such an artificial existence could not be prolonged to any great length
of tim