PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 41 



on the premises ! My old bear is very good-tempered 

 as a rule, but on one or two occasions has shown great 

 fury to strangers, without any apparent cause. She is 

 now so accustomed to solitude, as regards her own species, 

 that I should hardly like to introduce a younger and 

 weaker bear of either sex into her company. It is perhaps 

 worthy of note that this bear is particularly fond of the 

 leaves of the elm, but either wholly rejects or shows no 

 liking for those of any other of our common trees. 



" Another four-footed lady at Lilford for whom I 

 am anxious to find a mate, is the otter, caught some 

 years ago when not half-grown, near Warmington, and 

 now living in and about a small tank in our kitchen 

 garden. 



" My collection of mammalia is small ; perhaps to the 

 general public the most interesting of this order of animals, 

 now living at Lilford, would be the ruffed lemur, from 

 Madagascar, a beautiful nocturnal animal, allied to the 

 family of monkeys, with fine, long, black and white fur. 

 Two collared fruit-bats have been here for some years, 

 but as these beasts spend the whole of the day hanging 

 head downwards from the top of their cage, I can hardly 

 expect that the ordinary visitor should care much about 

 them ; their bodies are, roughly speaking, about the size 

 of a moderate-sized common rat, the outstretched wings 

 would measure about three feet, perhaps more, from point 

 to point. This species breeds annually in the Zoological 

 Gardens, whence I procured my specimens ; it is found 



