on a visit to the Zoo eighty years ago.



329



hardly call itself a suburb in this year of grace (+ war), nor now¬

adays in this era of tubes and petrol do we feel very distant from the

great city. But these are details which detract but little from the

wonderful youthfulness of the whole. The mention of epithets

reminds me that the present representative of the yellow parrakeet

of 1836 by no means merits those its predecessor’s character received,

although its beauty can be no less than the subject of the eulogy

quoted above. The present lutino, the property of one of our

members, is, I believe, a temporary inmate at the Zoo for reforma¬

tory purposes, or perhaps one had better say Borstal treatment; at

any rate, I should prefer not to be the beauty whose lips this one’s

beak got anywhere near.


But we must get away from the Parrots and follow our guide

to see the other birds to “ the lawn where the black swan, no longer

a rara avis, has twice made her nest, and now rejoices in her two

c yS ne ts, and where the New Holland Goose has hatched and brought

up her young.”


We are then taken to the aviary which at that time fronted

the lawn ; is this the present eastern aviary ? Here we are intro¬

duced to Crowned, Demoiselle, and Stanley Cranes, “comely”

Curassows, “ melancholy-looking Herons and Bitterns that seem to

pine for the whispering of reeds,” Spoonbills, Storks, among which

is the Marabou “ with its adjutant-like stalk,” and lastly, the “ Secre¬

tary,” whose snake-killing deeds receive half a page of picturesque

description. The Marabou, too, has a special paragraph to himself,

which I must quote here, as it might have been written about a bird

I had during my first tour in West Africa, that is, if for “ hall ” one

reads “ hut.”


“But just look a moment,” we read, “at that ancient, the

Marabou Stork, and only fancy him standing behind his master’s

chair at the dining table, expectant of his share of the feast. In

such a situation Smeathman saw one in Africa, which had been quite

domesticated. From his high roost on the silk-cotton trees, he would,

even at the distance of two or three miles, descry the servants

carrying the dishes across the yard, and as they entered the hall

down would he dash among them and take his place at the head of

the table. They had some dilliculty in making our friend the



