260 

 THE LITERARY ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN. 



SOME months ago we invited the notice of our readers, alias the Bri- 

 tish public, to the Political Zoological Garden : we now solicit their 

 attention to a similar Institution, which we trust they will find equally 

 amusing and worthy of inspection. The following notice is posted over 

 the entrance, and we would recommend visitors to attend particularly 

 to its directions : 



" Ladies and Gentlemen are requested to provide themselves with nuts or 

 gitigerbread for the Contributors, else they will Jind them troublesome, 

 rhey are also respectfully cautioned to be on their guard against one of the 

 Reviewers, who is at present remarkably fierce and unlractable." 



On entering the Gardens, the eye is at once arrested by that magnifi- 

 cent bird of the swan species the fe Cygnus Heliconius" of Linnaeus 

 known to English naturalists by the name of the BARD or POET. This 

 bird is almost as rare as the Phoenix or the Roc of Arabian romance. 

 It has the wing of an eagle, and the voice of a nightingale, ' so that it is 

 impossible to confound it with the swans of St. James's Park. The 

 Avon in England, and the Mulla in Ireland, were famous in by-gone 

 days as its favourite haunts ; the Thames, too, the " royal-towered 

 Thames," produced some noble specimens, particularly one in the times 

 of the Commonwealth, which, though blind, soared " above the Aonian 

 Mount," and as it sung, 



" would take the prisoned soul, 

 And lap it in Elysium." 



Opposite to the Bard, with which it is strikingly contrasted, is the 

 BARDLING, the "" Anser Magnus" of the old ornithologists. This bird 

 frequents fens and stagnant pools, and is found in perfection in Montgo- 

 raery-shire. Certain writers are absurd and ignorant enough to contend 

 that it belongs to the swan family, whereas it bears no resemblance 

 whatever to a swan : its plumage is a dirty white, its sweetest strain a 

 cackle ; so that it is incapable of so much as " fading in music ;" and 

 its motion on the waters the most uncygnet-like conceivable. Every 

 one who has read Mac Fleckno, the Dunciad, and the English Bards, 

 knows that Dryden, Pope, and Byron were inveterate enemies to the 

 Bardling, which they shot in considerable numbers, with a kind of arrow 

 of their own construction, called the shaft of satire. The only difficulty 

 they found in shooting them, arose from their flying so near the ground. 

 The present specimen is the largest that was ever exhibited. It deserves 

 to be called " Anser Maximus," for it is certainly the greatest goose in 

 England. About two years ago it made a ridiculous attempt to fly over 

 Oxford. It failed ridiculously ; but, instead of keeping in future to the 

 level of its native marshes, with the characteristic wisdom of its kind, 

 it essayed a still more elevated flight, and was taken, amidst shouts of 

 laughter from all who witnessed its folly. As a solace in its captivity, 

 the keeper informed us that it has contracted a friendship with a neigh- 

 bouring Puffin, a bird of the Pseudo-Critic genus. Their intimacy is as 

 close as their cages will allow ; they scream and cackle in concert ; the 

 Bardling takes the Puffin for a Critic, and the Puffin takes the Bardling 

 for a Bard. 



The CONTRIBUTOR " Canis Impransus" of Linnaeus calls your 



