SOME PRIVATE ZOOS. 695 



eternal hope, but otherwise without a nuu'niur. waste dozens of ])lates, 

 and at lent^th success would be his. 



At the antipodes of shyness, as of homeland, are the j>reat kangaroos. 

 Now, the kangaroo is in its own country anything but confiding. Its 

 impressive 2()-foot leaps have kept me on hands and knees, with a heavy 

 Winchester ritle slung over my neck, l)y the hour, and it never reposed 

 in me that perfect trust which would have enabled an easy shot. Fluk- 

 ing kangaroos at 800 or 400 yards is not exhilarating sport, as anyone 

 might understand if he tried catapulting grasshoppers at 50. The con- 

 ditions as to movement and size of the target would approximate. At 

 Leonardslee, however, the only rifle that ever breaks the stillness is 

 that with which Sir Edmund Loder practices at his private ranges; 

 and the beasts have got to know and disregard its voice. So the kan- 

 garoos come quite close to even the stranger, and have in consequence 

 no secrets from the camera. The Japanese deer, on the other hand, 

 which seem to have learnt their leaping tricks, remain out of focal 

 range, and nothing but the telephotograph, one of which Mr. Walter 

 Winans has kindly sent me from his deer park at Surrenden, will 

 avail. The big game of Leonardslee, however, is usually collected on 

 a high, grassy plateau on the farther side of some pheasant coverts, 

 and our sudden appearance round a bend sends herds of browsing- 

 moufflon and Barbary sheep, in a moment of forgotten confidence, 

 prancing over the sky line. Among the rarities mention should per- 

 haps be made of a pair of Marica gazelles, the only living specimens, 

 I })elieve, in Europe. 



The best known proteges of the Squire of Vaynol are perhaps his 

 wild white cattle, of Sir John Orde's old Kilmory stock with a cross 

 of Athol bull. Visitors to the Zoological Gardens during the past 

 year or so must have noticed the Vaynol cow, with her little white calf 

 by a Chartle}' sire. The remaining herds of British wild cattle are 

 not more than three or four in number, and those at Vaynol were 

 established there by the present owner. Though never aggressive, 

 they are very wild in the sense of resenting the close approach of 

 strangers, as the unsatisfactory result (given at the head of this arti- 

 cle) of several hot days of stalking them in various parts of the park 

 will bear witness. There is usually a herd of deer mingled with the 

 cattle, and both graze close to the house and round the lake. Just 

 before my stay, a cow had come to grief right under the windows, 

 and had to be shot; and for several nights after the event a mighty bull 

 fight took place in the moonlight on that spot — an episode that might 

 perhaps have been valued more at a less restful hour of the twenty- 

 four. The calves are noticeably whiter than their elders, which seem 

 to assume a varying degree of yellow or cream-color as they advance 

 in 3^ears. Of hares, Vaynol has three kinds (the English^ Scotch, and 

 Irish), and, for all I should care to swear to the contrary, about three 



