VARIOUS PETS. 289 



reprinted in Out of Doors. Lizards, of course, he had 

 of various kinds, among them a specimen of that 

 strange, spine-covered creature, the Tapayaxin, which 

 was sent him by post from North America, and arrived 

 in safety, only however to expire after a very few 

 weeks in captivity. Newts he frequently kept, gene- 

 rally in a globe of water in his study, or in one of 

 those large oblong glass tanks generally dignified by 

 the title of " aquaria." Of tortoises there were several 

 at different times, the last being fastened to a post 

 in the garden by means of a long string passed through 

 a hole in the edge of its shell ; and two chicken tor- 

 toises lived for a long time indoors. Then there came 

 half a dozen scorpions from the south of Europe, which 

 theoretically were mine, but practically were mono- 

 polised by my father; and two great Buli/mts snails 

 from the West Indies, which lived for some months 

 under a glass globe without doing anything at all to 

 justify their existence ; an injured bat, which was pro- 

 vided with a similar domicile, and had to be supplied 

 with blue-bottle flies at the rate of about seventy 

 per diem, or rather per noctem ; and mostly a few odds 

 and ends in the shape of water-beetles, dragon-fly 

 grubs, or some other creatures which happened at the 

 time to be more particularly under observation. 



For cage-birds my father never manifested any fond- 

 ness, save that he once kept quite a large number of 

 canaries for some time in one large cage, knew them 

 all separately and by name, and took the greatest 

 interest in their doings. And once we had a parrot : 

 T 



