Ages to ivhich Birds live. 41 



quoting somebody ; and it might have been expected that 

 someone would have put forward cases of longevity among 

 the Tetraonidae. 



To draw any comparison between birds and mammals is 

 not very easy. Birds attain their growth of stature much 

 quicker than most of the Mammalia^ and there seems good 

 reason for thinking they can live as long ; but some writers, 

 including Edward Blyth, have held that they cannot. It 

 has been said that in a general way the age of beasts is equal 

 to six times the period which they take to grow to full 

 growth of stature, and there may be truth in this axiom, but 

 it cannot apply to birds. It seems to be quite clearly 

 proved that some tame elephants have reached one hundred 

 years ('The Field,' March 11th, 1871, and January 29th, 

 1898), and evidence points to the probability of their having 

 reached two hundred in a wild state. Horses have not 

 much chance of running to the length of their tether, but a 

 barge-horse was sixty-one {W. Youatt), a Galloway pony at 

 Stilworthy was 60, and a Shetland pony was 43. A Pome- 

 ranian dog was 19 (Zool. 1878, p. 100), and another dog 

 22 {Youatt), while Mr. A. Patterson, of Yarmouth, had a 

 cat which was 18 years old. hi the London Zoological 

 Gardens, according to Mr. Cornish, an Indian rhinoceros 

 attained to 37, and a Polar bear to 34 ; while a relative 

 of Dr. Paul Leverkiihn's shot a deer which for 40 years had 

 carried a little metal box with the date " April 1829 " 

 inside it, proving its age. 



It is beyond question that fishes, such as, for example, pike 

 and carp, can attain to a very great age, and so can tortoises. 

 The Hon. Walter Rothschild deposited in the Zoological 

 Gardens a Testudo daudini 150 years old; and Gilbert 

 Winter's T. marg'mata was 54 ; but one in Norfolk was 

 asserted to be 100 (Norwich Nat. Tr. ii. pp. 164, 174). In 

 the Natural History Museum there is an oil-painting of a 

 pike which was 267 years old. The reptile-house at the 

 Zoological Gardens is stated to contain a Mississippi 

 alligator of 20, and until lately a Reticulated Python of 

 the same age. 



