252 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



nested next spring in the adjacent trees. For the 

 wildest creatures the state of nature has its evils, 

 which disappear in captivity. Every class, except 

 the strongest, has its c natural enemy ' for ever seek- 

 ing to kill it, of whose existence it is painfully 

 aware, and which keeps it constantly in nervous 

 dread. For most, a change of weather or of season 

 causes a dearth of food ; and for all the inevitable 

 time of injury and sickness, though not foreseen or 

 dreaded, comes at last, without the chance of aid or 

 recovery. An example of the advantages of life at 

 the Zoo, even to the largest animals, when attacked 

 by illness curable by human treatment, but likely to 

 cause lingering death in freedom, occurred only 

 recently in the Gardens. An Indian rhinoceros 

 developed a large and painful abscess under its 

 eye. This was suspected to be caused by a bad 

 tooth ; but as it ate the twigs of a birch-broom 

 which was cut up and given to it, it was decided 

 to treat the case as one requiring the surgeon, and 

 not the dentist. The creature allowed the abscess to 

 be lanced, and later to be syringed daily with a 

 large garden squirt, and the treatment was suc- 

 cessful. 



The absence of self-consciousness in animals dis- 

 tinguishes their case from that of human beings in 

 confinement. They feel none of the exasperation of 



