XXXU mOCEEDINGS, 



for the sake of tlioir hides (worth ahout £4 apiece for the making; 

 of colonial cattle-whips) must unfailingly result in their total 

 extermination before long, although that enlightened chief, Khama, 

 is doing his best to prevent their slaughter within his territory. 

 Their place is now occupied by a pair of Zebu oxen and the large 

 African ostrich presented by the Queen, both of which served as 

 types of their respective sections for the purpose of demonstration, 

 the former furnishing a text for a short lecture on horns, antlers, 

 and similar structures, while the latter was utilized as subject- 

 matter for some remarks upon that modification of the hand and 

 arm which constitutes a wing, an evolution which these archaic 

 birds evince even more obviously than those endowed with the 

 faculty of flight. The ostrich in question is very gentle, and 

 oiiered no resistance to being posed in its capacity of an object- 

 lesson in the hands of its keeper. 



Most of the houses and groups were visited in turn, Mr. 

 Stradling lightening the more scientific part of his discourse with 

 personal anecdotes of the history or peculiarities of disposition 

 of the specimens under observ^ation. The sea-lions and diving- 

 birds were fed and put through their various performances specially 

 for the benefit of the Society, and in the lion and reptile houses 

 the members were admitted " behind the scenes," and shown the 

 arrangement of the dens, sundry baby specimens, and other details 

 not revealed to the general public. 



A very young and playful leopard, and a cheetah, just arrived 

 and not yet unpacked, were the centre of attraction at the rear 

 of the lion-house, where the ingenious apparatus by means of 

 which the great cats are transferred from their sleeping compart- 

 ments to the open-air and other cages was exhibited in its working. 

 The alligators and egg-eating lizards in the reptile-house were 

 indulged with an extra meal, for the benefit of the "sisitors no 

 less than their own; and some of the serpents were taken from 

 their dens in order that the points of interest attaching to them 

 might be more advantageously indicated. 



At half -past five an adjournment was made to the large saloon 

 of the restaurant, where Mrs. Stradling entertained the party 

 at tea, while the strains of the band of the 1st Dragoon Guards 

 contributed pleasingly to the harmony of the occasion. At the 

 conclusion of the meal. Archdeacon Lawrance proposed a hearty 

 vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Stradling, and alluded to the 

 fact that the Hertfordshire Natural History Society had scarcely 

 ever been more prosperous or had a greater increase in its roll of 

 members than at the present time, under the reign of the President 

 who had brought them there that afternoon. 



The President responded briefly, saying that he hoped the visit 

 to the Zoo would become an affair of annual recurrence in their 

 summer fixtures. 



