52 The Irish Naturalist. March, 



a few days" inspection, quarantine, or repose, is one of the most pressing 

 needs of our Gardens. It is to be hoped that some benefactor will come 

 forward and provide the funds to enable the Council to carry out one 

 or more of these useful schemes. All of them are feasible. Money is all 

 that is required to carry them out. 



Ver\- great difficulties had to be overcome in housing the stock during 

 the building operations. The Lions and Lionesses had to be kept apart» 

 with the result that fewer cubs were born than usual. In fact only two 

 cubs were born, the offspring of Conn and Vesta, which occupy the 

 outdoor den. This is the fourth occasion, therefore, on which cubs 

 have been born and reared entirely in an unheated outdoor cage. 



A splendid young Lioness was sent to the Zoological Gardens at 

 Sydney in Australia, and a pair of cubs went to Rangoon in Burma. All 

 these Irish-reared Lions reached their destination in excellent health 

 and condition. In spite of the inconveniences arising from the causes 

 alluded to, the number of Lions and Lionesses at present in the Gardens 

 is only one less than last year. Altogether the Gardens possess nineteen 

 Lions and Lionesses, of which fourteen are Irish-born animals. As the 

 Society is now provided with special breeding dens, from the neighbour- 

 hood of which the public can be excluded, it is to be hoped that some 

 of the other large carnivores may be induced to take advantage of these 

 facilities by imitating the example which has been set them by the Lions. 



Again three Puma cubs were born in the new outdoor Carnivore House. 

 Two of these were females and one was a male. Among other births in 

 the Gardens, a Zebu Bull and two Barbary Sheep, a Mongoose Lemur, 

 Golden Agouti, a Canada Tree Porcupine, a Great Wallaroo, and several 

 prairie Marmots are perhaps the most important. 



As during the year 1908, so also in 1909 almost all available funds were 

 reserved to defray the cost of the new Lion House. Still a few gaps 

 among the animals had to be filled. The few necessary purchases made 

 were two Coypus, one Hoolock Gibbon, a vSea Lion, several monkeys, and 

 a number of Birds; while a young Lioness, as already stated, was ex- 

 changed with the Sydney Zoological Gardens for several different 

 members of the Kangaroo tribe. 



During the past year the Council have had to deplore a most serious 

 loss in the sudden death of the 3-oung female Giraffe, which was so 

 generously presented to the Society by General Sir Reginald Wingate 

 in 1903, and which had always been in the best of health. Professor 

 Mettam, who has acted for many years as the Society's prosector, reports 

 that the death of the Giraffe was probably primaril}- due to an attack of 

 colic. This caused the animal to throw herself violently about and 

 she fractured her jaw during a fall. 



Another valuable animal which was lost during the year was a young 

 female Chimpanzee, popularly known as Jane, which was found to be 

 suffering from a degeneration of the liver. A j^oung Seal died from gastri- 

 tis, and a male Rhea from tuberculosis, while two Kangaroos succumbed 

 to a new disease which has not yet received a name. Almost all other 

 deaths were due to natural causes. Some Birds and an Otter escaped from 



