THIBET DOG.

THE first traveller that appears to have given to the public any account of these dogs, is Captain Turner, who says that while near the seat of the Rajah of Bootan, he noticed "a row of wooden cages, containing a number of large dogs, tremendously fierce, strong, and noisy. They were natives of Thibet; and whether savage by nature, or soured by confinement, they were so impetuously furious, that it was unsafe, unless the keepers were near, even to approach their dens. Entering a Thibet village, and being indolently disposed, and prompted by mere curiosity, I strolled alone among the houses, and seeing everything still and quiet, I turned into one of the stone enclosures, which serve as folds for cattle. The instant I entered the gate, to my astonishment, up started a huge dog, big enough, if his courage had been equal to his size, to fight a lion. He kept me at bay with a most most clamorous bark, and I was a good deal startled at first, but recollecting their cowardly disposition, I stood still; for having once had one in my possession, I knew that they were fierce only when they perceived themselves feared. If I had attempted to run, be probably would have flown upon me, and torn me in pieces, before any one could have come to my rescue. Some persons came out of the house, and he was soon silenced."

His late Majesty, King William the Fourth, presented a pair of dogs of this kind, to the collection in the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regents Park, London. They had been brought from the neighbour

hood of Diggarchee, the capital city of Thibet, by Dr. Wallich, the celebrated botanist. They were larger than the largest English mastiff. "Their colour was a deep black, slightly clouded on the sides; their feet, and a spot over each eye alone, being of a full, tawny, or bright brown. They had the broad, short, truncated muzzle of the mastiff, and lips still more deeply pendulous. In fact, there appeared, throughout, a general looseness of the skin; a circumstance which M. Desmarest has pointed out as characteristic of his 'dog of Thibet,' of which, however, he gives no particular description." Speaking of this same pair Dr. Wallich says, that they were very gentle; and he further writes of them that "these noble animals are the watch-dogs of the table land of the Himalayan Mountains about Thibet. Their masters, the Bhoteas, to whom they are most strongly attached, are a singular race, of a ruddy copper-colour, indicating the bracing air which they breathe; rather short, but of an excellent disposition. Their clothing is adapted to the cold climate which they inhabit, and consists of fur and woollen cloth. The men till the ground and keep sheep, and at certain seasons come down to trade, bringing borax, tincal, and musk, for sale: they sometimes penetrate as far as Calcutta. On these occasions the women remain at home with the dogs, and the encampment is watched by the latter, which have an almost irreconcilable aversion to Europeans, and in general fly ferociously at a white face:" out of their own immediate country, however, they seem, as imparted by the previous statement, to lose nearly all their energies, and to degenerate very much.

TROGON.

No species of this beautiful family of birds occurs in this country, or even in Europe. The following account of them is necessarily borrowed:-"The trogons," says Linnæus Martin, "constitute a family of birds, the members of which are peculiar to the hotter regions of America, and of India, and its adjacent islands-Ceylon, Java, Borneo, Sumatra, etc.; one species only having as yet been discovered in Africa. Among the most conspicuous of the feathered tribes for beauty and brilliancy of plumage, the trogons stand confessedly pre-eminent. The metallic golden green of some species is of dazzling effulgence; in others less gorgeous: the delicate pencillings of the plumage, and the contrasted hues of deep scarlet, black, green, and brown, produce a rich and beautiful effect.

It is difficult to convey the idea of a bird, or indeed of any natural object, by description solely; the pictorial specimen, however, will render the details connected with the family features of the present group easily intelligible.

The trogons are zygodactyle, that is, they have their toes in pairs--two before, and two behind, like the parrots and woodpeckers; the tarsi are short and feeble, the beak is stout, and the gape wide; the general contour of the body is full and round, and the head large; the plumage is dense, soft, and deep; the wings are short but pointed, the quill feathers being rigid; the tail is long, ample, and graduated, its outer feathers decreasing in length; in some species the tail feathers are elongated, so as to form a pendent plumage of loose feathers,