A HOWL FROM THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.

Air—"I'm a Broken-hearted Gardener."

I'm a hippish Hippopotamus, and don't know what to do,

For the public is inconstant and a fickle one too;

It smiled once upon me, and now I'm quite forgot.

Neglected in my bath, and left to go to pot.

And it's oh! oh! out of joint is my nose,

It's a nasty Ant-eater to whom every one goes.

He is my abhorrence, I think him quite a hum,

He's worse than that Marine Vi-va-ri-um;

He beats the Knowsley beasteses of the Derby dilly,

And makes the baby Elephant look small and silly.

And it's oh! oh! pity my woes!

The American Ant-eater has put out my nose.

I stood against the novelties—I didn't care at all

When the Frenchmen my existence were unable to recall;

I knew it was all jealousy, and I, too great a fact,

To be rendered a nonentity by any Mossoo's act.

But it's oh! oh! the English me depose,

And with the Great Ant-eater have put out my nose.

He is but an Edentate, while I'm a Pachyderm;

He has got a shaggy hide, while mine is smooth and firm;

He can't tell how to walk, and he don't know how to swim.

And yet, the public overboard have thrown me for him.

And it's oh! oh! to think that my foes

Should get a Great Ant-eater to put out my nose.

He has scarcely got a mouth, and no teeth, but in their stead

A yard or two of tongue in his elongated head;

And why the fickle public should delight in such a beast,

Is a mystery that I cannot understand the least.

And it's oh! oh! would any one suppose,

An Ant-eater could ever out of joint put my nose?

I was growing up in Hippohood, the visitors to please,

And cutting my incisors, and increasing by degrees;

And my milk-and-carrot diet I was quickly throwing by—

And now they have compelled me to eat humble pie.

And it's oh! oh! what a thing I disclose!

The American Ant-eater out of joint's put my nose.

I'd like my sharpest grinders in that Ant-eater to stick,

And leave his bushy tail for the dicky birds to pick;

I'd just like to shew him that I've got teeth to use,

That can crunch him into nothing whenever I chews.

And it's oh! oh! that I could come to blows

With this beast that's so completely out of joint put my nose.

Or I wish that I could make myself a Fellow, d'ye see,

Of this Zoological So-ci-e-ty:

For then I'd send this Ant-eater back to his Ants,

Or to my French rival at the Jardin des Plantes.

But it's oh! no go: there's no end to my woes;

The American Ant-eater out of joint's put my nose!

Signed,Hippohis mark.
Countersigned,Sadi
Knight of the Bath and Groom of the Chambers.

Given at my house in the Zoological Gardens,

this 15th day of October, 1853.