184 From all Sources. 



rounding or unpromising the space to 1>e dealt with may be. 

 The house itself is situated at the corner of two fine, wide 

 roads, with, as I have said, scarcely any back premises at 

 at all and herein lie the limitations, these have been, so far as 

 possible, surmounted, and Dr. Thwaites now has an aviary 

 which yields him much interest and pleasure in the intervals 

 free from professional duties. 



To be continued 



From All Sources. 



THE ICELANDIC FALCON.— LONELY NEWCOMER TO THE ZOO. 



" In the long range of cages where the Eagles and Falcons live at the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens there is a comparatively new denizen. He is 

 the Icelandic Falcon, and if he could think clearly he would look down with 

 scorn on the eagles and vultures, and especially on the peregrines who 

 usurped his place long ago as sporting hawks. The Peregrine Falcon has 

 a great reputation as a hunter and as a friend of man, but it is very doubt- 

 ful whether he has deserved anything of the kind. He is not so swift or so 

 clever as his brother from the north, and there are many reasons for be- 

 lieving that he was not the true heroic falcon of the olden days. 



The fine specimen now at the Zoo is not the first that has ever been 

 in the gardens, but he is very lonely, being one of the last of his tribe. 

 As his name suggests, his home was in Iceland, and we have records of 

 shiploads of the birds having been brought from the northern island to 

 Holland, so that they might be transported to the middle of Europe. 



Its grey, swift wings and its quick intuition when hunting ran up 

 its value so highly that a ship was specially despatched from Copenhagen 

 in 1754 to bi'ing back as many as possible of the birds. It brought 14 

 of them, which were no doubt the proger.itors of the finest stocks of hunt- 

 ing falcons in Central Europe. 



Not many of the true breed are left, and the Zoo has been without 

 a representative for a number of years, So this new one is lonely, and it must 

 be owned not very friendly, unless approached in the right spirit. That spirit 

 seems to have been better known in bygone days. The keeper of the hawks 

 certainly has lost it, and as to the casual visitor, he had better leave 

 Hierofalco Idaiulu^ (that is his scientific name) alone, or Hierofalco will 

 greet him with a flow of bad language which could not be matched, even 

 in the cats' house, where they swear abominably."— From the StandunJ, per 

 Rev. G. H. Raynor. 



ENGLISH WILD BIRDS FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



" Some 450 wild birds have been despatched from Euston, England, 

 iov British Columbia. They consist of Skylarks, Robins, Goldfinches, Tits 

 and Linnets, and they will, in the phrase on the notice attaclied to the 

 special vans in which they were conveyed to Liverpool, "be set free to 



