74 The Irish NaturalisL March. 



Inquiries about the Societj-'s Lions have been received from manv 

 parts of the world, and actual offers of purchase were made from Eng- 

 land, Spain, India, Burma, and Australia. 



No less than nine cubs were born and reared during the past year. 

 Unfortunately eight of these were females and only one a male. A 

 feature of particular interest was that the Lion " Niger '' and the 

 Lioness "Nigeria" from West Africa deposited by H.M. the King, gave 

 birth to three cubs. It is ver}- unusual for forest-bred Lions to rear their 

 first litter in captivity. Special attention and care was devoted by the 

 keeper, Christopher Flood, to the cubs, and it is mainly due to his 

 excellent management that they survived. They were ver}- deeply 

 spotted. "Conn ''and '-Vesta," which are in the outdoor den, had a 

 litter of three cubs. This is, therefore, the third occasion on which cubs 

 have been born and reared entirely in an unheated outdoor den. Inci- 

 dentally it may be mentioned that the Persian Lioness deposited by His 

 Majesty the King many years ago, which was then ver}- light in colour, 

 has uow in her old age assumed a much darker hue. 



There are quite as many Lions and Lionesses now in the Gardens as 

 last year. Altogether there are twent}', of which fifteen are Irish-born 

 animals. But never in the historv of he Gardens have such a lar£re 

 number of cubs (ii) been exhibited before. 



For many years no Pumas had been born in the Gardens. Since the 

 construction of outdoor dens enabled their transfer to them, three male 

 cubs were born on the 3rd September, two of which subsequentl}- died. 

 A Zebra foal was born on the 20th Jul)', but it also unfortunately died. 

 A young Mongoose Lemur was successfully reared. 



By far the most interesting event occurred in the summer, when 

 several of the Rheas (South American Ostriches), which are accustomed 

 to roam freely about the grounds, laid a large number of eggs between 

 the Sth and 24th June. There were altogether twent3-three of them, far 

 too many to be hatched by a single male bird, for among these creatures 

 the cock alone undertakes the duty of sitting on the eggs. Onl}' one of 

 the two cocks in the Gardens was inclined to have anything to do witJi 

 the hatching business. Eleven eggs were therefore placed under it on 

 the 25th July, and ten of these were successfully hatched after thirt}-- 

 eight days' sitting. Six of the chicks were weakly and died. The 

 remainder are now strong and healthy. Under these circumstances 

 Professor Scott volunteered his assistance in hatching the remainder of 

 the eggs by incubatiou. 



It was hoped by the Council that some generous donor might possibly 

 offer the Society a gift of an Elephant. vSo far the generous donor has 

 not come forward. Nevertheless, as an Elephant had to be obtained 

 for the summer months, a young female was hired and was actually 

 trained in the Gardens to carry children, which she did successfully, 

 after some practice with dummies. 



A most unfortunate loss was that of the young Zebra foal, shortly after 

 its birth. Several animals, notably a young Ostrich, and a Lioness, died 

 from a disease to which many human beings succumb, viz., tubercu- 



