10 OUT OF DOORS. 



among the birds may be noticed a great number of 

 species belonging to the poultry and the pigeons, such 

 as the splendid curassows of tropical America, and the 

 large wonga-wonga pigeon of Australia. France and 

 England are uniting in the same great object by means 

 of their respective Societies of Acclimatization, and 

 should Europe be hereafter enriched with the valuable 

 beasts and birds that are now being gradually accus- 

 tomed to the conditions of a strange land, it is to be 

 hoped that posterity will not forget how deep a debt 

 of gratitude they owe to the Zoological Gardens of 

 London, the property of a private Society. 



Desirous of seeing how the cold weather was borne 

 by the ostriches, I went to look at my old friends, 

 whom I found shut up in their houses, but very glad to 

 see me, and as desirous as ever of eating any object they 

 could snap up. The shining top of my pencil-case was 

 a wonderful object to these inquisitive and voracious 

 birds, and it was most absurd to see all the heads 

 bobbing up and down, the large brown eyes gleaming 

 with excitement, and the wide mouths opened and shut 

 with impatience, just because I was writing with a 

 pencil that had a glittering top. 



The temperature was 45° Fahr. in this department, 

 and the ostriches and cassowaries were quite at their 

 ease, as probably was the apteryx ; but as the latter 

 bird was hidden, as usual, behind her bundle of straw, 

 and was in all likelihood fast asleep, her exact condition 

 could not be ascertained. There are plenty of odd 



