.»%% 



72 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



geese bred, and so did a good many of the fancy ducks. The 

 difficulty of reconciling the conditions necessary for breeding 

 with those requisite for exhibition were felt. Thus the mandarin 

 ducks did not increase at the Park as it was hoped they would 

 do, and it was proposed to send them to the Farm. They were, 

 however, a great attraction to visitors, for, though examples had 

 been introduced into England in the first half of the eighteenth 

 century,"^ the birds were unknown to the general public. 



One reason why the breeding lists at the Farm were not 

 greater will probably be found in the influx of visitors. Some 

 Fellows seem to have looked upon the establishment at Kingston 

 Hill as a convenient place for picnics. A little light is thrown 

 on this subject by the subjoined letter from Mr. Papps, the 

 Superintendent, to the Assistant Secretary, who had asked for 

 information as to the refusal, on the previous Sunday, to admit 

 a party furnished with a Fellow's order. The rule appears to 

 have been that personal introduction was necessary, though it 

 was not always enforced. Mr. Papps wrote : 



The orders of the Council were perhaps more strictly followed than 

 usual, in consequence of the conduct of a party of seventeen persons intro- 

 duced by a Lady of Title on Sunday week, and who dined on the lawn and 

 amused themselves with hunting the zebras and kangaroos about — upsetting 

 the coops, and carrying the ducks about in their arms, and afterwards 

 pouring Punch or something similar into their pans. The Men were kept 

 till past 10 o'clock searching for the ducks after the Party had left, and 

 seven ducks died the next day in consequence of the treatment they had 

 received. 



This evil was, no doubt, soon remedied. A more serious 

 drawback to the usefulness of the Farm, inasmuch as it caused 

 an alteration in the system, was the introduction of the large 

 stock of animals from Windsor, " the keep and accommodation 

 of which were of considerable magnitude, so far as relates to 

 expense." Nevertheless, the Committee were of opinion that 

 the additional expenditure had essentially conduced to the 

 well-being of the Society. They concluded their report with a 

 recommendation of " patient perseverance in one uniform system, 



* The figure in Edwards's "Natural History of Uncommon Birds" (pt. ii., 

 London, 1747) was drawn by him at Richmond, in Surrey, from the living bird 

 kept in the gardens of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart. The species was then known as 

 the '* Chinese teal." 



