iv Preface. 



nor a leaf insect ; but nearly all the other animals, 

 particularly vertebrate, are DOW on view, and in 

 the summer probably many of the invertebrate 

 types will be exhibited. 



This volume, therefore, being of moderate dimen- 

 sions, can be usefully carried by the visitor and 

 studied with the animals before him. It speaks 

 well for the care taken of animals by the Society 

 that many of the individuals spoken of Mr: 

 Tristram- Valentine are still with us. The Crypto- 

 procta, of which he wrote in December, 1890, is 

 still alive and shows no signs of decay; the African 

 rhinoceros only died after a prolonged residence in 

 the gardens of over twenty years, in all probability 

 the extreme span of life of this animal. 



The articles which follow those upon the 

 Zoological Society's collection deal with London 

 birds. They will possibly surprise those who 

 regard, as Mr. Tristram-Valentine suspects of 

 many, the sparrow as the only indigenous bird of 

 this metropolis. I am informed that, after the 

 article on " Bird Life in London " was published 

 (the last the author wrote), he found that there 

 were still many flycatchers to be seen in London 

 parks and gardens, and that during his last illness 

 he obtained evidence of the breeding of a pair in 

 Kensington. It is probable that many persons 

 were astonished by the pair of magpies in the 

 Regent's Park, which were genuine inhabitants 

 thereof, and not escaped prisoners from the 

 Zoological Gardens. The extraordinary number 



