THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 45 



demoiselle cranes, several South American birds and quadrupeds, 

 a wombat, a vicugna, and a pair of J a van peafowl. 



The Royal gift naturally excited a good deal of interest. A 

 paragraph in the Times of August 19 announced that great pre- 

 parations were being made at the Gardens for the reception of 

 the animals, and that more than 100 men were employed in 

 draining the ground on the banks of the Regent's Canal and 

 constructing habitations for housing the stock. A good deal of 

 it, however, was sent to the Farm. 



This notable accession enabled the Council to behave liberally 

 to the Zoological Society then being formed in Dublin by offering 

 duplicates. A similar offer was made to the Royal Menagerie at 

 Paris, whither were sent a pair of wapiti from the Royal herd, 

 and duplicates of Indian and Australian animals " worthy of 

 the National Institutions of England and France respectively 

 to offer and accept." 



About this time the Society endeavoured to procure a giraffe. 

 At the Council Meeting of July 7 a letter was read from Mr. 

 Traill, of Cairo, offering his services in obtaining a specimen, 

 and it was determined to allow £300 for one " delivered safely 

 and in good health at Alexandria." Not long after this the 

 skin and skeleton of " the giraffe which lately died at Windsor '* 

 were offered to the Society. A minute states that the Council 

 " thankfully accept the same, and will also defray the charges of 

 preserving and setting up the animal." 



The following account^ of that giraffe in captivity is, not 

 improbably, from Owen's pen: 



It was at that thne [August, 1827] exceedingly playful ; but as its 

 growth proceeded, which was rapid (having increased eighteen inches in 

 less than two years), it became much less active ; its health evidently 

 declined ; its legs almost lost their power of supporting the body ; the 

 joints seemed to shoot over ; and at length the weakness increased to such 

 a degree, that it became necessary to have a pulley constructed, which, 

 being suspended from the ceiling of the animal's hovel, was fastened round 

 its body, for the purpose of raising it on its legs without any exertion on 

 its own part. From the harmless disposition and uniform gentleness of 

 this animal, the interest which it had excited in his late Majesty was very 



* Zoological Magazine, p. 3. This was founded by Owen (Jan., 1833), who sold 

 the copyright after six numbers liad appeared. In the " Life " by his grandson, 

 the Eev. Richard Owen, he is said to have written the greater part of this short- 

 lived periodical. 



