MR. BUXTON'S PARROTS. 133 



new climate and to an open-air life. Unfortunately it would 

 be impossible, without an enormous amount of labour, to arrive 

 at any general views as to the results obtained in all the differ- 

 ent zoological gardens in Europe; but in general it seems 

 beyond a doubt that these attempts have succeeded best where 

 the animals were introduced to an equable climate, and least 

 well in gardens in the eastern region, where the climate is 

 essentially continental, i.e. extreme. The first statement, 

 that the acclimatisation of even tropical animals may be suc- 

 cessful in an equable climate, though much colder than that of 

 which they are natives, has found a striking and in every way 

 interesting proof. Mr. Charles Buxton, 50 a rich member of Parlia- 

 ment, made such an experiment on a vast scale. He kept during 

 many years numerous individuals of eleven species of cockatoos 

 and tropical parrots in a large glass house ; he then all at once 

 gave them their liberty, putting them out into a wood con- 

 tiguous to his garden. Being accustomed to be fed at fixed 

 hours in the glass house, they came regularly down into the 

 courtyard ; but though the house was open to them, with nesting 

 boxes to breed or to winter in, they built nests of their own 

 accord in hollow trunks, and bred and wintered there, and, 

 though exposed to a temperature of 7. below zero centigrade, 

 not one died. It must have been a beautiful s-ght when the 

 flock of gaudy parrots came crowding down in midwinter to 

 pick up their food on the snow-covered courtyard. Many 

 species were propagated, and even a hybrid race was produced 

 between a scarlet and a white cockatoo ; the young of these 

 were distinguished from their parents by a fine orange-coloured 

 tuft on the head. In view of the well-known effects of hybridi- 

 sation, it would of course be absurd to ascribe this result to the 

 effect on the parents of a climate to which they were not 

 accustomed ; but it proves that animals which we are wont to 

 regard as incapable of living in freedom in our climate, because 

 they are tropical species, are not only able to do so, but can 

 propagate their kind and effect a voluntary cross-breeding 

 which, if it were attempted artificially, would probably not 

 succeed even in their native country. However, the climate of 

 England is very equable in temperature, and it is more than 



