The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-20 00:00:00

THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS.

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of The Times :

Sir,—A short time since I brought under the
notice of your readers a small flock of alpacas
lately arrived in the neigkbourhood of London, and
made a proposition to the Victorian colonists rinow
resident in England to purchase them and present
them to the colony, as a slight testimony of what
it has done for us. Mainly through the zeal and
intelligent efforts of my friend, Mr. Tootal, late of
Melbourne, who at once offered to act as honorary
secretary, the necessary sum has been nearly raised,
the animals have been purchased, and arrangements
made for their shipment. They are to go out by
the Goddess, now lying in the East India Docks,
and it is expected that she will sail about the end
of this month. As we have secured the services of
a very competent man from the Zoological Gardens
in the Regent's-park, who has been strongly recom-
mended, to take charge of these animals, the thought
has occurred to me that an opportunity is afforded
for further experiments of a similar character, and
to which for several years I have been paying some
attention. The hearty warmth with which my
views have been met wherever I have broached
them encourages me to believe it possible that a
movement might readily be organized which would
be attended with the most interesting results, and
I therefore venture to ventilate the subject in your
übiquitous columns.
The remarks I make are mainly addressed to the
case of Australia, but it will be perceived that they
are applicable to many other countries,—in some
I sort to all.

The animals indigenous to Australia are rather
insignificant in a utilitarian sense. We have the
kangaroo, the wild dog, emu, opossum, bandicot,
and many others, furnishing a little sport, an occa-
sional meal, and an interesting study to the physi-
ologist, but of little value for the practical purposes
of every-day life. But while this is all that nature
unassisted has done for us, what has she given us
when her bounteousness has been supplemented by
the efforts of man ? It is but the other day that
we got the sheep ; yet we already supply Great
Britain with the chief portion of her finer wools.
The first cow was imported within the memory of
living man ; and now vast herds roam over millions
of acres, from Wide ,Bay to South Australia, and
good judges are beginning to ask whether the
colonial cattle will not bear a favourable compari-
son with the English average. We have got the
horse, unrivalled m the whole world for his powers
of endurance ; for were the deeds of our grass-fed
stock-horses but whispered within your well-kept
English stables, the narrative would be roared down i
by a general chorus of incredulous horse-laughter.
The " time" of our races would compare not very
unfavourably with your own. And thus, with the
dog, cat, pig, domestic fowl, duck, rabbit, pigeon,
down to our old friends the common house rat and
mouse, which, with their own amazing pertinacity,
stick by us with a fidelity worthy of a better cause,
and, multiplying exceedingly among us, give a
-sliome aspect to our colonial houses in their own in-
genious and significant style.
In short, Australia is highly favourable for the
production and existence of living creatures—in
many respects superior to England itself, which is
no slight praise.
This covering of a new country with new things,
all imported, and, as a whole, all thriving, is a very
brilliant and encouraging achievement. But, in-
stead of success leading to contentment and a dis-
inclination for further effort, the very brilliancy of
our success hitherto should be a stimulus, I think, to
still more energetic exertion; and we should never
rest till every country in the world has been effectively
tested with every natural production for which it may
be believed in any way suitable. How far by such
means human happiness may- be multiplied, how
far commerce and civilization may be stimulated,
furnishes a delicious dream to the philanthropist in
which he may profitably revel, if he do not allow
the yearnings of his heart entirely to preclude all
recollections of his breeches pocket.
To one long resident, as I have been, in a new
and undeveloped country, and who has watched it
almost from its earliest infancy, these considera-
tions present themselves in a very impressive form
indeed. Why should the tables of our colonists not
be supplied with an occasional hare or pheasant as
well as yours ? Why should our alderman be
baulked of his salmon cutlet, or slice of venison,
more than your alderman ? Why should the heart
of our ploughman not be gladdened by the song of
the skylark ? And why should the- daughter of
Australia, as she lingers with her lover upon a
moonlight evening, be deprived of one more felicity
___one more topic of conversation, in the nightingale
perched in the neighbouring thicket ? We do not
know how many such things are capable of much
more extended distribution than at present, and we
never shall know unless we try.
To show that much may be done in this way,
and that the colony with which I am ehiefly iden-
tifiedyf experiments that may be made, I
is in a frame of mind favourable to the de-
velopment
ststate
a fofeany
wacts which, during my inquiries
in this department, have come under my observa-
tion. _

Deer have long been established in Tasmania and
New South Wales, and a wild herd, descended from
a few head either deliberately turned out or escaped
from enclosures, is known to exist near Liverpool,
occasional specimens falling to the bullet of the
deer-stalker, and figuring in the butchers' shops in
Spdney. Two or three pairs were some years since
aced upon Philip Island in Western 'Port Bay;
and when I last saw the gentleman who occupies
it as a sheep= they had increased into a pretty
little herd of between 20 and 30.

The pheasant has been permanently established in
the north of New Zealand. It now abounds by
thousands in the neighbourhood of Mongarrui,
and is often brought down alive and sold by the
Maories in the town of Auckland. There were
singular circumstances attending its introduction,
which, as illustrating the ease with which some of
these experiments may be carried to a successful
issue, are worth narrating. Being in Auckland
last January, I made -it my business to hunt up
Mr. Walter Brodie, to whom the honour of their
introduction is due, and from him I got the parti-
culars. Some years since Mr. Brodie, being on the
eve of a voyage out, obtained a considerable num-
ber of pheasants, partridges, &c., to take with him.
He landed nearly all in safety, and turned his stock
of these birds into an aviary upon his estate, in-
, tending to breed from them and turn out their
progeny into the woods when they became suffi-
ciently numerous to give a fair chance of success.
No other pheasants had ever been introduced in
that neighbourhood. It was in the earlier days of
the settlement of New Zealand ; ships arriving
were few and far between, and such a fact as this
was easily attainable; and yet, to the unutterable
astonishment of Mr. Brodie, a native one day
brought him the headless body of an English phea-
sant which he had just rescued from a hawk.
None had ever been missed from the aviary, none
were missed then, and yet from that &ay pheasants
have existed in the neighbourhood, and are there
still. The Fates were less auspicious in the case:of
the poor partridges, which one after another came
to some untimely end, and the experiment in this
case was unsuccessful. I have been assured, how-
ever, that they have been since introduced into the
Canterbury settlement, and that good coveys are
now flushed in the cornfields of that flourishing
province.
About the year 1847 a gentleman of a patriotic
turn of mind turned seven English skylarks loose
in the Barrabaal hills, a few miles to time westward
of Geelong. They were the remains of a dozen
with which he had left home, the rest having died
on the passage. After a few years, finding no
further notice taken of the experiment, I offered
a reward of a few pounds to any one who would