SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ANDREW DOWNS PIERS. CV 



enlosures for Spanish, Mexican and Virginian deer, a large yard for 

 moose, enclosing trees for browse, others for elk and caribou, and 

 another for black bears. And so the visitor passes on through this 

 hundred-acre domain, with its alternate woods and open intervals, to 

 gaze successively at the long-billed bitterns, whooping cranes, gold, silver, 

 English and Amherst pheasants, California and native quails, eagles, 

 hawks, foxes, lynxes, prairie wolves, owls, fancy rabbits, Guinea pigs, 

 China sheep, Angora goats, silver-bearded Polands, Hamburg fowls, 

 Indian and Egyptian doves, ring doves, and so on. 



" In another part of the grounds is an Oriental kiosk filled with 

 every variety of stuffed birds, live snakes, lizards and turtles, and 

 containing an extensive aquarium. 



" What particularly strikes the observant visitor is the nicety with 

 which the habits of the creatures are satisfied by the adaptation of 

 environment ; and it is easy to perceive, from such results accomplished, 

 what is possible for our public gardens in the United States, with 

 sufficient area and liberal money appropriations. Certainly no exist- 

 ing zoological collection is as thoroughly and suitably provided for as 

 this of Downs' was twenty-five years ago, as I have just described it." 



In January, 1865, Downs read his first paper before the N. S. 

 Institute of Natural Science, on the land-birds of Nova Scotia, which 

 was the result of forty years' observation of bird life in this province. 

 This subject he continued in a paper read in May of the following 

 year. 



In the latter part of 1867 he was proposed for superintendent of 

 the Central Park menagerie, New York, being recommended by Prof. 

 Spencer F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution. In the following 

 year he disposed of his animals and grounds and went to New York ; 

 but being, it it said, displeased by what he considered an over-abrupt 

 and apparently cool reception from one of the commissioners, he did not 

 accept the appointment and returned to Halifax at the end of about 

 three months. 



Soon afterwards he purchased a new property (subsequently S. A. 

 White's and Capt. W. H. Smith's) adjoining his old place, built a 

 house and started a new zoological garden. This he continued to 

 improve for about three years, gathering around him birds and other 

 animals, and continuing his taxidermic work, in which he excelled. 



