158 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



the collection is a very small one. In the General His- 

 tory of Birds, Dr. Latham enumerates no less than ] 45 

 species of this family ; and although he makes no dis- 

 tinction between the freshwater ducks and those which 

 more peculiarly inhabit the sea, yet the average number 

 of the latter cannot be taken at more than one third ; 

 seeing that in the other two thirds we should include 

 not only the ducks, but the swans and geese. Hence 

 it results, that there are probably little short of 100 

 species of this family which may be supposed capable 

 of being acclimated, or domesticated, if the especial atten- 

 tion of any influential Society were directed more to this 

 family than to any other. But to do this effectually, much 

 more time, trouble, and expense must be devoted to 

 them, than has hitherto been the custom, — at least in 

 the aviaries of this country. Many of the most beau- 

 tiful species, from being peculiar to warm climates, 

 must be sheltered, and kept in an artificial temperature, 

 nearly one half of the year, and the greater part enjoy 

 the same comfort during the winter. To accomplish 

 this, there appears no other effectual means than in- 

 closing them in large glass preserves, something similar 

 to that at the Surrey Zoological Gardens ; one being 

 devoted to the tropical AnatidcP, or those of a more 

 tender constitution ; the other to such as merely require 

 protection from frost. The expense of such buildings, 

 it may be urged, would be very great : but then it 

 should be remembered, that, when once erected, they 

 would endure for years ; they would be permanent re- 

 sidences, and insure a success in the preservation and 

 rearing of living birds we know not how to accom- 

 plish by any other means. 



The recent establishment of the Ornithological Society 

 ofi London, whose objects are entirely limited to the 

 feathered creation, and more especially to the rasorial 

 order and its representatives, promises to realise all that 

 we have said on this interesting subject. The pecuhar 

 privilege possessed by this Society, of using the noble 

 canals in the royal parks as their aquatic preserves, gives 



