16 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. 
The grain mixture in use by the Zoological Society’s 
Keepers for feeding the waterfowl at the Gardens is as follows : 
half a bushel of wheat and the same of sound barley, with one 
peck of heavy buckwheat; hemp is given in cold weather, 
and young birds receive a portion of Spratt’s Patent Meal. 
We may judge that the above treatment has been 
successful when we consider how well the Anatidz are 
represented in the Gardens. 
Mr. Sclater, speaking before the Zoological Society in 
1880, stated :— 
‘*Great attention has always been paid to the acclimatization of 
rare exotic Waterfowl, the present being the most extensive collection 
in existence. During the past twenty years eighty-six species of Anatide 
have been exhibited in the Gardens, while at the present moment there are 
to be seen two hundred and seventy individuals, belonging to fifty-three 
species.” 
Several years have elapsed since the delivery of this 
address, during which other specimens have been added to the 
list of waterfowl, among which may be mentioned the Wild 
Muscovy Duck, Catrina moschata, from South America; the 
Slender Duck from Australia, Anas gtbberifrons ; the White 
Marked Duck from Antarctic America, Anas specularts ; and 
the curious Lobated or Musk Duck, Azziura lobata, from 
Australia, of which examples were received for the first time 
in 1882, together with other rare and interesting species, 
among them the Eastern White-eyed Duck, Andaman Teal, 
Lesser Snow-Goose, Muller’s Tree Duck, American Wigeon, 
and others. 
It is of course impossible to lay down a hard and 
fast rule respecting the feeding of waterfowl, either in kind or 
quantity. The circumstances of the case as regards the health of 
the bird, whethe: in moult or newly-imported, whether breeding 
or not, the severity of the weather, the character of the soil, 
