civ SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ANDREW DOWNS PIERS. 



rooms constitute a museum of natural history and art, perfect in clas- 

 sification and detail of arrangement, paintings, engravings, water 

 colors, herbaria, busts and miniature sculptures. And what a view 

 from the verandah and bay windows ! The ' North-west Arm ' 

 stretching away toward the ocean, with its bays, inlets, wooded hills, 

 island and far-reaching points of land that are blue and only half- 

 distinct in the hazy atmosphere of a summer day. Yonder is the 

 devoted naturalist in his shirt sleeves feeding his poultry. He is 

 fairly surrounded by multitudes of the feathered and four-footed tribes. 

 Shaggy skye terriers of different colors, which have the freedom of 

 the yard, greet our approach by rubbing their dusty paws on our 

 boots ; tumbler pigeons throw summersets in the air and plump down 

 at our feet ; pouters and fantails strut and flutter among the throngs. 

 Chinese and Egyptian geese with huge, bulbous bills, squawk discord- 

 ant notes ; cranes stalk majestically ; monkeys grimace and marmosets 

 chatter in a cage close by, and a big Brazilian monkey gives a sly tug 

 at our coat tail through the wires of his cage. There are bantams and 

 game fowls, ducks, geese and pheasants, all of rare breeds, and for 

 each he has a peculiar call and a handful of seeds or grain, or bread or 

 biscuit, suited to its peculiar taste. All about the immediate vicinity 

 are cages, coops, perches and shelter-houses, some closed on their in- 

 mates and others open for free ingress and egress. A little beyond 

 this part of the premises, at the edge of a lawn, is a lake where China 

 swans, odd-looking geese and ducks with uncouth topknots are play- 

 ing under the douche of a fountain. Tall cranes stalk along the reedy 

 margin, herons on one leg stand motionless among the lilypads, wood 

 ducks skulk beneath the overhanging bushes, and wild wood birds dart 

 in and out of the trees which fringe the border. Farther on a cas- 

 cade tumbles into the lake, and the rocky basin at its foot provides 

 cooling refreshment for a large polar bear. The stream leads to a 

 pond above, where a seal sports and comes to the beach at call. Here 

 are beavers, mink and otters, all suitably secured in mesh-wire in- 

 closures. Anon we cross a rustic bridge which spans a ravine, and 

 thence traverse a shadowy path to a bower with a table inside made of 

 the ponderous bone of a whale's tail. Near at hand is a flower garden 

 laid out in artistic designs, and in a clump of trees just aside are nest- 

 ing birds which receive the naturalist's daily attention. Next come 



