236 Report of the Meetings for 1895. 



Leaving the lake the visitors were conducted over such 

 portions of the Castle as were approaching completion hy 

 Mr William Forster, "the magnificence of the pile being the 

 wonder and admiration oi: all." Upwards of two years will 

 yet elapse before the undertaking is out of the hands of 

 the contractor, Mr Walter Scott of Newcastle. 



The Haggerston Zoo. By the President. 



In connection with the meeting of the Club at Haggerston 

 Castle, on the 28th day of August 1895, it seems desirable 

 that its records should comprise some trustworthy notes on 

 a Zoological collection, so interesting and so unique, as that 

 of Mr C. J. Ley land. 



Few have had the opportunity of seeing the various 

 species under any conditions of life, and none probably under 

 conditions at all similar as regards acclimatization or change 

 of habitat. 



The quadrupeds and birds are distributed over the park 

 adjoining the Castle, and are confined in fields and paddocks, 

 varying in extent, with wooden houses which they can enter 

 at pleasure ; but these are not artificially heated, a fact 

 which strikes one as showing a singular adaptation to 

 circumstances scarcely to be expected on the part of some 

 at least of the occupants. 



To a student of Nature the effect of changes of environ- 

 ment, of climate, and of conditions generally must always be 

 of the greatest interest, and the Club is under a renewed 

 debt of gratitude to Mr Leyland for supplementing his 

 kindness, in permitting the exhaustive inspection of his 

 collection, by furnishing copious notes on which this paper 

 is founded. 



It must not be foi'gotten that Mr Leyland's experience did 

 not commence with his residence at Haggerston Castle, as he 

 had previously nearly all the species whilst residing in 

 Wales— some specimens having been in his possession for 

 at least 12 years. 



Attention should perhaps be first directed to the herd of 

 North American Bison {Bos bison, Linn,; Bus americanus, 



