ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN. 209 



of its enclosure are written the words, 'The otter bites ;' 

 and when I was there, it had nearly bitten an old woman's 

 toe. I suppose she had ten of them, so the loss of one at 

 her time of life would not have mattered much. 



" There are hundreds of parrots, and one entirely yellow, 

 just like a canary in colour. The cranes are very grace- 

 ful, and of diverse kinds; the bears likewise of diverse 

 kinds, but quite the reverse of graceful. The ducks and 

 geese are likewise divers of their kind, and there is a cor- 

 morant with a throat that would swallow a rolling-stone. 



" The cheetah, or hunting tiger, is the first true one I 

 ever saw. The animal usually shewn under that name is 

 more of a leopard, but the true cheetah has a pale-coloured 

 coat, covered over by numerous small single sej>arate spots, 

 not forming circular groups as in the leopard We went 

 to see the lions and tigers fed, and their roaring was 

 dreadful. There is a great lot of live dogs, which also at 

 feeding time pretended to be fierce, but I saw that most 

 of them were laughing all the time. One of the largest 

 and finest is a Persian shepherd's dog, as big as a New- 

 foundland, which uncle M'Neill sent home. He spoke to 

 it in Persian, which made it turn round, but it would not 

 shake its tail or speak to him in return. By the by, there 

 is a Persian cat here (a blue one), which is to be boarded 

 at Wuodville till the M'Neills are settled. It is accustomed 



to be chained up, so there is no fear of our birds." 



o 



