THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 238.— October, 1896. 



THE DUKE OF BEDFORD'S MENAGERIE AT 

 WOBURN ABBEY. 



By Richard Lydekker, F.R.S., F.Z.S. 



Zoological Gardens are excellent institutions, but, like nearly 

 all excellent institutions, they have their imperfections. One of 

 the disabilities under which they labour is the impossibility of 

 giving sufficient space to the large herbivorous mammals, such as 

 Deer and Antelopes ; so that it is impossible to see these animals 

 in anything approaching their natural haunts, and thus to learn 

 something of their ways and mode of life. Even if the required 

 space were available, it would of course be impracticable in 

 an ordinary menagerie to turn out the animals in any sort of 

 park where the public would be able to see them. What is 

 thus difficult to accomplish in a public menagerie, however, is 

 possible in a private park, if only the owner possesses sufficient 

 means, and sufficient interest in zoological science to make the 

 experiment. 



Most readers are doubtless acquainted by name with Woburn 

 Abbey, the ancestral seat of the Dukes of Bedford ; but it is 

 probably less well known that this extensive and beautifully- 

 timbered domain contains at the present time a collection of 

 wild animals which in this country can be rivalled only by the 

 well-known gardens in the Kegent's Park. Instead, however, of 

 being cooped up within the narrow limits of small paddocks, 

 such of the animals as exhibit an amenable disposition, and show 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XX. OCT. 1896. 2 F 



