The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-31 00:00:00

THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS IN

REGENT'S PARK, LONDON.
The Times, in describing the Exhibitions and Museums of
London, and their visit ire on Boxing Day, takes the oppor-
tunity of giving the following interesting aocount of the
Royal Zoological Society's Gardens in Regent's Park,
London
The Zoological Gardens received a goodly number
of the holiday-makers, and to all appearance the
various inhabitants of the Gardens, human and other-
wise, spent a happy day. Probably, a wild beast who
knew what was really good for him would acknow-
ledge that in Regent's-park, under the sagacious ad-
ministration of Mr. A. D. Bartlett he was far more
truly happy than when abandoned to the illusory
enjoyments of a liberty, wbich means the liberty to be
killed as well as to kill, to starve one day as well as to
bring on indigestion the next by a surfeit of horse-
flesh or of negro, as the case may be. But what*
ever may be the moralizations of the beasts themselves,
Mr. Bartlett having got them is determined to keep
them, and a monkey who escaped the other day, and
was long sought in vain by men with ladders and long
poles from whom he escaped by superior agility in
leaps all over the roof and walls of the monkey-house,
was brought to his senses at last by a douche of cold
water from the long garden-hose, and returned all
dripping to his keepers. Several additions have been
made to the collection in the Gardens since we last
noticed it.
The insectarium, which otherwise would be very
bare at a time of year when the painted butterflies
and hairy caterpillars have gone into the temporary
retirement of the chrysalis-stage has been enriched
by placiag in it newts, toads, frogs, and reptiles of
curious and delicate hues. Here are some of the many
strange toads of South America, neither ugly nor
venomous, though bearing precious jewels in their
heads, the pantherine toads (spotted like the pard) ;
the bull frog from North America, a great fellow,
7in. or Bin, long, who bellows as lustily as if he
were entitled to only the first-half of his name.
In this house, too, is a pair of the Tuatera lizards
from New Zealand, extremely rare, and specially
interesting as an example of the saurian life, in
which those islands are notoriously deficient. The
anatomy of these little lizards is that which Especially
endears them to the collector, because it comes nearer
Co that of the birds than in any other living species,
the forms which Professor H. G. Sheeley observed in
the fossil pterodactyls being repeated in this still
extant inhabitant of the southern hemisphere. The
largest spider now in Europe is a tarantula in this
house, brought from Pernambuco in Brazil ; and here
are chameleons, which so far from feeding on air,
have gentils provided for them, which are eaten as
fa: tas they hatch. Two birds of Paradise, in new and
full plumage, very beautiful scecimens of their kind,
from New Guinea, complete the additions to the "in-
sect house,"
A remarkable and very interesting event has just
occurred in the reptile-house. The nose-horned viper,
a beautifully marked and mottled female, 31 t. Gin, in
length, who recently arrived in this country from
West Africa, has had forty-six additions to her
family. Some of the little snakes may be seen alive
in a warm cupboard in the reptile-house, but most of
them have perished. The mother took no further
heed of them after birth, and they have been removed
from her, lest she should be betray ed into swallowing
them. The young ones were born about lft. long,
and were already so venomous that they immediately
killed a mouse placed with them. Frogs and baby-
rats, little pink, hairless things, bred for the purpose,
are given them to eat, but the appetite of the young
vipers is not vigorous.
Near the office is a deer from Patagonia, entirely
new to the society's collection. It is not even named ;
it is the only Patagonian deer the gardens contain.
Its legs are extremely short, giving it the appearance
of a goat rather than of a deer, and on the inner aide
of each thigh is a black gland. The animal is ex-
tremely tame, comes and begs for food, and has
very large, trustful eyes. If this is of the same
species which Lady Florence Dixie saw in her journey
across Patagonia, the reluctance she felt to shoot any
more of the kind when she had killed one may be under-
stood. The jaguar which this intrepid sportswoman
placed in the gardens is still in the house of the
carnivore, but has betrayed at last its native ferocity.
It had been accustomed to follow its human friends
like a dog, and it will still call for them and throw
itself on the ground to be petted ; but to its own race its
manners are leas enticing. A female jaguar, presented
by Lord Lilford, was housed in an adjoining den. The
two animals appeared to have taken a fancy to each
other. The male would pass his tongue between the
bars to lick the female and manifested a wish te
improve the acquaintance. With a natural desire to
encourage a friendly intimacy among even wild beasts,
the superintendent ordered the gate between the
two cages to be opened. The male jaguar at once
walked into the apartment of his neighbour. But his
visit was a cruel one, for, while the spectators
expected him to caress the animal whom it was
thought he had chosen for his mate, he suddenly
seized her by the back of the neck, crushed her spine,
and carried her about with him dead in his mouth, as
a cat might carry a mouse. There had been no
premonitory hissing and spitting as there usually is
when these large cats mean combat. The whole
affair was quite unexpected, and was the work of five
minutes.
A very tame tiger,- who has been aocustomed to be
fed at dinner like a lapdog and will let any one play
with him, has been placed by Colonel Owen Williams
in an adjoining cell. Although long fed on cooked
meat to keep down the savagery of his disposition, he
may be expected to develop in time in like manner
the bloodthirsty instincts of his kind.
We ought to add to the quite novel addition's to the
society's collection the beatrix, an oryx from Arabia,
which almost completes the group of this elms of
antelope in the gardens. The society already pos-
sessed the leucoryx of North Africa, the beisa
from North-East Africa, and now only wants what is
called the "common oryx." It is another example of
the common becoming very uncommon. The
" common " zebra, which used to abound at the Cape,
is now very hard to obtain, while the mountain zebra
is much less rare.