218 DEATH OF A FAVOURITE. 



to the gratification of curiosity and the enkrgement of our know, 

 ledge of the animal creation. It so happens, however, that 

 although none of the animals exhibited in our Zoological Gardens 

 are obtained with a special view to " dissection," there are very 

 few of them, after all, that escape the knife at last. No sooner 

 do they cease to be of service for " view," than there are a dozen 

 or more Fellows and Professors eager to have a hand in them, and 

 sometimes the disclosures which are thus made are not a little 

 curious. For example, there was Tom, the favourite Seal in the 

 Regent's Park Gardens : nobody could conjecture at first what it 

 was that had shortened his days, and deprived the Gardens of 

 cue of their greatest attractions. But when the poor fellow came 

 to be dissected, it was found that the coats of his stomach were 

 bristling with fish-hooks ! The reader may be sure that not only 

 Tom's successor in the Seal pond, but all the icnthyophagi of the 

 establishment h|ive benefited by the discovery, and that no fish 

 arc now served out which have not first been carefully freed from 

 cold steel. 



The Regent's Park Gardens have long been a favourite resort 

 of ours, and there are few places where the student of Natural 

 History can gratify himself with the sight of so many of the 

 living curiosities of animal life. Holiday place as it is, therefore, 

 we may well pay it a visit, and look for a while at some of its 

 more curious and interesting occupants; not confining ourselves 

 to those of the present time merely, but remembering our high 

 distinction of "looking before and after," recalling for a time 

 some of the " lions " of days gone by, and anticipating the pro- 

 bable " lions " of the future. 



The Fish House, which contains more wonders than all the 

 rest of the Gardens together, we may dismiss very summarily. 

 Not a sentence need be spent on the Anemones, Serpulie, Hermit 

 Crabs, and their allies, though the cases containing them are at all 

 times besieged by an eager crowd of visitors anxious to make 

 acquaintance with these little dwellers in the deep. 



In the fresh-water tanks no fish attracts more attention than 

 that ruthless fellow the Pike, which rests so quietly that it 

 looks like a painted fish in a painted Aquarium, although pining 

 apparently for the still shady coverts in which it delights to 

 nestle by the pool or riverside. Not that ths fellow very readily 

 succumbs to the effects of confinement ; for one of them has lived 



