ACCLIMATISATION AND BREEDING 203 
mained until nearly the beginning of winter. About that 
time I was, as so often happens to me, called away un-_ 
expectedly and did not get back till about a week later. 
During this week cold weather suddenly set in. I arrived 
back very late at night, but was awakened early next morn- 
ing by the characteristic cry of my crane, which I had for- 
gotten all about, and which I had intended to transfer to a 
warm building. I hastened out to find the hoar frost lying 
on the ground, and expecting to see the crane frozen through 
with the cold. But to my astonishment I found him in the 
most boisterous health; and when I came up, expecting to 
see him on the point of death, he came dancing and flutter- 
ing round to greet me, filling the air with his loud cries. 
Seeing that he did not appear to have suffered in any way 
from the cold, I arranged in one corner of the enclosure a 
sort of recess with plenty of straw where he could obtain 
shelter from the cold. But never once during the snow- 
storms, wind, and rain of that long winter did he make any 
use of this recess. He maintained his health in as perfect 
condition as though he were in his own tropical climate. I 
date from this occurrence the inauguration of my settled cus- 
tom of giving wild animals access to the open air to the 
greatest possible extent. From this time commenced those 
experiments on acclimatisation which, since the founding of 
my animal park at Stellingen, have occupied a very large 
share of my attention. 
The art of acclimatisation is as old as the animal trade it- 
self, for it has always been necessary, in order to keep in 
captivity animals from foreign countries, to acclimatise them 
to some extent to their new country, as well as to changed 
habits of life and artificially prepared food. Captivity, indeed, 
involves an enormous change in all the animal's ordinary 
modes of life. From being free to roam on the deserts or the 
steppes, and compelled to exercise cunning or swiftness to 
secure its food, it is now confined in a comparatively cramped 
space and not called upon to exercise any of its normal 
