ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL. II 
the St. James’s Waterfowl are a matter of history. First 
introduced by Charles II. (1661), whose pleasure it was to 
feed the ducks and play with his dogs, they were here kept 
in great numbers, as were also a variety of other animals, 
including roebucks, red deer, antelopes, &c., &c. It would 
appear that St. James’s Park at that period became, as Mr. 
Hare expresses it, “a kind of Zoological Garden for London.” 
We gather from the writings of Evelyn that the wicker baskets 
which are at this time in use on the Continent as nesting 
places for the smaller fancy ducks, were then employed for 
the same purpose in England, as may be seen by the following 
curious extract from this author :— 
‘‘oth February, 1664. I went to St. James’s Park where I saw 
various animals. . . . The park was at this time stored with numerous 
flocks of severall sorts of ordinary and extraordinary wild fowle, breeding 
about the Decoy, which, for heing neere so grette a City, and among such 
a concourse of souldiers and people, is a singular and diverting thing. 
There were withy-potts or nests for the wild fowle to lay their 
eggs in, a little above ye surface of ye water.” 
The Birds of St. James’s Park are fed with a mixture of 
round maize and barley, the food being thrown on the island 
in order to be out of the reach of rats and mice, and to 
encourage the birds to resort there for laying. 
Where there is no island upon which the birds may be 
fed, it will be found best to feed them on a floating raft, or 
in tin vessels nailed to boards, ‘as will be described hereafter. 
In Battersea Park there is also a collection of waterfowl, which, 
although not comprising so many varieties as that at St. 
James's, is nevertheless very attractive, including, as it does, 
a considerable number of Black Swans, which appear to the 
greatest advantage on the spacious sheets of water beautifully 
diversified with small islands, well covered with ornamental 
bushes and forest trees, the borders clothed with graceful 
rushes, beds of water-lily, and other aquatic plants. The White 
