WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



tigers, elephants, or any other wild beasts, simply because I 

 was almost from my birth among them. Since then I have had 

 the good fortune to have the management of the extensive col- 

 lection of the Zoological Society, and the familiarity with wild 

 beasts in my infancy has been of invaluable service to me. 



"During the early period of my life, Mr. Cross, noticing how 

 fond I was of living birds and other animals, kindly offered me 

 the dead bodies of some of the birds which I was so fond of 

 feeding. This led me to endeavour to save their beautiful 

 feathers and skins from decay. I was not long in being able to 

 take off and prepare their skins so as to preserve them for future 

 use. The result of this was that I became a successful taxidermist. 



"It was from about 1820 to 1826 that I was allowed to walk 

 about the beast-room, as it was then called, at Exeter 'Change. 

 My next seven or eight years were less agreeable, having been 

 apprenticed in 1826 to my father John Bartlett, hairdresser and 

 brush-maker of 83 Drury Lane, a business I most heartily de- 

 tested, although I used to amuse myself by preserving birds, 

 etc., in my own private room in the house. Somewhere about 

 1833 or 1834 I determined again to seek the society of wild 

 animals ; but as I could not offer myself as a keeper, and as I 

 had no means of becoming a proprietor, what was I to do ? It 

 then occurred to me that I could become a taxidermist ; ha^dng 

 so early taken to wild animals, it was obvious to me that I 

 must live among them without being one myself, and tliis I could 

 do by preserving specimens of Nature's most beautiful works. 



"My introduction to the Zoological Society was through a 

 very able physician, Mr. Anthony White of Parliament Street. 

 I thus became acquainted with Mr. Yarrell, W. Ogilby, John 

 Gould, W. Gillett, and others (the Society's Museum was in 

 Bruton Street at this period), and I was a correspondent of 

 Mr. D. W. Mitchell, who then resided in Cornwall. Now Mr. 

 Mitchell came to London, and learned from me much about the 

 affairs of the Society. 



"This resulted in his obtaining the Secretaryship, greatly to 

 my astonishment. He did not fail, however, to consult me upon 

 the subject of the future prosperity of the Society, and this led 

 to the opening of the Gardens to the public on payment of six- 

 pence, on Mondays. The success of this concession to the public 

 has undoubtedly brought about the popularity of the collection 

 and its advancement to its present condition. 



" My introduction to the authorities of the British Museum, 



2 



