THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 87 



demonstration of defending itself by striking with its hind 

 spurs." Its only action, when irritated, was to roll itself into 

 a ball, like a hedgehog, the bristles then being erect. 



It was fed on bread and milk, into which some mealworms 

 had been put. " The tongue came more than once in contact 

 with the larvae, which were sometimes rolled over by it, but no 

 attempt was made to swallow them." The present method of 

 feeding on finely minced meat mixed with the bread and 

 milk would probably have given the animal a better chance of hfe. 



The European bison was introduced in 1847. Through the 

 influence of Sir R. I. Murchison, who had recently taken part in 

 the Geological Survey of Russia, the Czar Nicholas I. presented 

 a pair of young animals. These were obtained by driving in 

 the forest of Grodno, and fifty foresters with three hundred 

 beaters, were employed. A keeper was sent from London to 

 Memel to receive them, and they arrived in fairly good con- 

 dition. M. Dolmatoif, the Master of the Imperial forest of 

 Grodno, contributed some interesting notes on the species to 

 the Proceedings for 1848. From his own experience he 

 dissipated the erroneous view that these calves would not 

 take nourishment from a domestic cow; and this was con- 

 firmed by their taking readily to foster-mothers at Regent's 

 Park. He suggested that it would not be difficult to obtain 

 a cross with ordinary cattle, but there was no opportunity 

 for that experiment ; and recommended that the animals should 

 be kept in a paddock that would afford them a wide range. To 

 M. Dolmatoff and Sir R. I. Murchison the Council awarded the 

 Silver Medal, to commemorate the introduction of the species ; 

 and this was the first occasion on which it was presented. 



In the same year the condor nested. In his " Note-book of 

 a Naturalist" (p. 13), Broderip made this fact the text for 

 a pleasant little disquisition on the treatment of the animals 

 in the Menagerie: 



It affords pregnant evidence of the care and attention exerted by 

 the authorities and keepers of the animals confined in the garden of the 

 Zoological Society of London in the Regent's Park, when we find that so 

 many of them have not only shown a disposition to breed in their captivity, 

 but that not a few have actually reared healthy offspring under all the dis- 

 advantages which a life so different from that intended by Nature must 

 under any circumstance produce. 



