TEE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



153 



1872, and the North Gate, with the adjoining lodge, com- 

 menced. In October the bridge that spans the canal and 

 connects this piece with the Middle Garden was completed ; 

 but the public were not admitted at the North Gate till the 

 Easter Monday of 1873. The land had been in the occu- 

 pation of the. Society since Michaelmas, 1869, and the object 

 of opening it was rather the provision of a convenient mode 

 of access to the Gardens for persons living north of Regent's 



EAST END OF MIDDLE AND NORTH GARDEN, 1874.' 



Park than the necessity for increased accommodation for 

 Menagerie stock. For some time only that part lying between 

 the entrance and the bridge was utilised. The brick aviaries 

 long occupied by owls and falcons were put up in 1874. To 

 provide winter quarters for two Aldabra tortoises purchased in 

 1875, the glass front from the old lions' dens under the Terrace 

 was erected, a little east of the entrance, and used as a tortoise 

 house till the opening of the new building in the South Garden. 

 Five years later more of the strip was taken in ; and the iron- 

 and-glass structure — now the insect house — was removed to 

 its present position from the South Garden, where it had done 

 duty as a refreshment-room. At first it served as a winter 



