362 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



no tendency to quarrel with their imported fellows, or with the 

 herds of Red and Fallow Deer for which Woburn has long been 

 famed, are allowed to roam at their own sweet will over the entire 

 Deer-park, although others are restricted to a smaller area. 



Fortunately the park itself is most admirably adapted for the 

 acclimatization of animals of all kinds. Not only is it, as already 

 said, beautifully timbered, but it comprises an alternation of hill 

 and dale with wide-spreading flats of open grass-land, and 

 masses of bracken and other covert. Lakes, too, of different 

 sizes and shapes are dotted here and there over the landscape ; 

 while, as some of the ridges are formed of dry sand and sand- 

 stone, and the flats consist of clayey beds, animals must be hard 

 to please indeed if they cannot find localities suited to their 

 particular disposition. 



With such natural surroundings, and with the freedom ac- 

 corded them, it is but natural that the Deer and Antelopes — 

 which form the most attractive feature of the Woburn collection, 

 so far as mammals are concerned — are in much better bodily 

 condition than their relatives in the Regent's Park. Here, too, 

 the naturalist can see them in many cases under conditions more 

 or less resembling those of their native lands, although, of 

 course, the vegetable surroundings are in some instances dif- 

 ferent. Perhaps the most marked and interesting instance is 

 afforded by the Elk, of which there are several. On most days 

 these huge ungainly ruminants may be seen standing belly-deep 

 in one of the lakes, lazily cropping the water-plants that come 

 within reach of their extensile lips. The naturalist is thus 

 enabled at a glance to see at least one use of the excessively long 

 limbs of the Elk, which enable it to wade into depths where 

 most animals would be drowned outright. Of course he has 

 read over and over again that such is the natural habit of the 

 creature, but till he has actually seen it, the picture can never 

 become fully impressed on his mind. 



Another sight worth walking miles to behold was a party of 

 three or four Sable Antelopes feeding among a mass of bracken 

 in a secluded glen, and looking as much at home as if on their 

 native veldt. Then, for the first time, one realised the full 

 beauty of this fine Antelope, and appreciated Gordon Cumming's 

 raptures when he first obtained a glimpse of a herd. Not less 

 interesting are three magnificent specimens of Burchell's Zebra, 



