122 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



Park was established. An important accession to 

 the already extensive menagerie was made in 1830, 

 when William IV. presented to the Society the 

 whole of his Windsor collection kangaroos, zebras, 

 deer, emeus, and so forth. More than a hundred 

 men were set to work to drain the banks of the 

 Regent's Canal, and in making houses for the new 

 animals. Amongst this series were two nilgai, a 

 species which afterwards bred at the farm at 

 Kingston-on-Thames. The first example seems to 

 have been born in February, 1831 ; by April 30, 

 1838, no less than nine nilgai had been bred at 

 Kingston, together with kangaroos, armadillos, and 

 many other interesting animals. 



The present species was also represented in the 

 once famous menagerie of Exeter 'Change, where 

 now Exeter Hall stands. This institution consisted 

 of a clumsily shaped building, its front projecting 

 over the street, with shops beneath ; it was covered 

 over with paintings of lions, tigers, and so forth, 

 while a sham Yeoman of the Guard harangued the 

 passers-by on the wonders to be seen within. 

 The exhibition consisted of various wild animals 

 arranged in a large room, with one apartment below 

 and another above it ; this latter contained an 

 elephant, housed at the top of the building! Amongst 

 the animals shown were a true quagga, a zebra, and 

 a tapir ; a nilgai lived amid these unnatural sur- 

 roundings for six years a tough test, surely ! The 



