58 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



no charge was made for their keep from the time at which they 

 became the property of the Society. To this Mr. Cops agreed. 



No list is given in the Council's Reports of the animals 

 constituting this Royal gift to the Society. The following, taken 

 from " The Tower Menagerie " by E. T. Bennett, enumerates the 

 species represented in that collection in November, 1828 : 



A Bengal lion, lioness and cubs, Cape lion (sold), Barbary lioness, tiger 

 leopards, jaguar, puma, ocelot, caracal, cheetahs (sold), striped and spotted 

 byoenas, hyaena dog, African bloodhound, wolves, jackals, civet cats, ichneu- 

 mons, paradoxure, coati, raccoon, black and grizzly bears, Thibet bear (sold), 

 Bornean bear, macaques and baboons, mongoose, great kangaroo, porcupine, 

 Indian elephant, Burchell's zebra, llama, sambur, Indian antelope, golden 

 and sea eagles, bearded and griffon vultures, secretary-bird (killed), deep- 

 blue macaw (sold), blue-and-yellow macaw, yellow-crested cockatoo, emu, 

 crowned crane, pelicans, alligator, Indian python, anaconda, and over a 

 hundred rattlesnakes. 



The words in parentheses show how some animals were 

 disposed of before the Menagerie was given up, and it is doubtful 

 if all the rest — notably, the elephant and the reptiles — came to 

 the Gardens. Two facts, noted by Bennett, have not found their 

 way into general zoological literature. The pelicans^ nested, 

 and the hen bird sat on three eggs, being assiduously fed by the 

 male ; and the python incubated fifteen eggs unsuccessfully t 



The Sandwich Island goose must be mentioned, for this 

 species bred pretty freely in the Gardens and at the Farm, and 

 at Knowsley. Lord Stanley then said : " I have little doubt but 

 that these birds may be easily established (with a little care and 

 attention), and form an interesting addition to the stock of 

 British domesticated fowls." That hope, like so many others 

 with regard to the domestication of new species, has been 

 disappointed. The last examples exhibited at the Gardens 

 were a pair received in 1887 from Mr. Scott Wilson, the 

 author of " Aves Hawaiienses," who says that " this interesting 

 species, almost entirely confined as it is to one district of the 



• Pelicans have brought off young in the Rotterdam Zoological Garden (see 

 Der Zoologische Garten, 1872, s. 264, and Proceedings Zoological Society, 1899, p. 827. 



t The incubation of the African python in the Jardin des Plantes in 1841 is 

 usually cited as the first instance in Europe. The same species incubated in the 

 Zoological Gardens in 1862, and an account by Dr. Sclater appeared in the 

 Froceedings (pp. 365-8) for that year. 



