HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE .MAGAZINE. 
73 
try my luck. You may think it funny me 
applying for a place like this, but my soul 
seems to cry out for it." 
WOULD AGREE WITH THE NATIVES. 
One youth of 13^ said his only qualification 
was talking, another offered to give Mr. Hamlyn 
a day for an interview. One father wrote for his 
three sons — 10, 12 and 14 — saying he "felt sure, 
from their home life, that they would agree with 
the natives." Extracts from ether letters are: — 
"I can ride, shoot, swim and fight any- 
one of my age, and have lived amongst cattle 
all my life." 
A young lady wrote that "she was in- 
tensely fop t d of wild animals." She added she 
"was perfectly willing to work in man's 
attire." 
"Any form of clanger is happy and excit- 
ing for me. Father says I would make a very 
good hunter." 
Another applicant said he "had been in 
a lion's den." 
LEARNING THE BUSINESS. 
Mr. Hamlyn discussed with our representative 
the qualifications that go to make a successful 
wild animal packer, for that is what he wants. 
There is no question of the successful applicant 
having to trap the animals; that is done by the 
natives. The only way to make oneself proficient 
in this particular line of business is to undergo* a 
six months' training at Mr. Hamlyn's London 
depot, and this is what the successful applicant 
will have to do. Here he can learn the most 
important of his training — the handling and man- 
agement generally of wild animals, etc. A great 
many of these creatures die on the voyage through 
want of skilled care. The worst part of the busi- 
ness, Mr. Hamlyn explained, is the first 12 months. 
One has to get accustomed to one's surround- 
ings. 
TRIAL TRIP TO NEW YORK. 
"We should first send the lad to New York 
in charge of a small consignment," added Mr. 
Hamlyn, "as this is the shortest voyage, and 
later, if he proved to be suited to the work, he 
would have to go to India or other long journeys. 
It is a very interesting but arduous business, and 
it is useless to enter it unless you have a liking 
for it. One must love the animals," concluded 
Air. Hamlyn, as our representative took leave of 
him. 
Mr. Hamlyn regrets that he is unable to reply 
to the letters individually, but wishes, through 
"The People, to thank the many applicants. He 
has selected six, and in the course of a few weeks 
will come to a final decision. The successful ap- 
plicant will be duly announced in "The People." 
REMINISCENCES OF THE LONDON 
ZOO. 
By F. Finn, B.A., F.Z.S. 
In my earlier recollections, too, the Zoo 
was very short of Ostriches, the reason 
for not keeping them being the fondness of the 
public for feeding them with coppers — one bird 
died of ninepencc-halfpenny which he had saved 
up! 
Penguins used to be kept as tank performers 
in the Fish House, no wthe Diving-bird House, 
and not, in my opinion, improved thereby. .Some 
years ago it was most unjustly stated in one of 
the papers that the late Secretary, Dr. P. L. 
Sclater, being especially interested in birds, had 
unduly favoured them in this house. As a matter 
of fact, in his day, as I remember it, it was as 
good a house, both from a spectacular and scien- 
tific point of view, as any in the gardens, con- 
taining a really all-round collection. The diving- 
birds performed in the tank at one end, a charm- 
ing little collection of waders and sometimes 
others, such as Terns, were in the aviary at the 
other end; marine as well as fresh-water fish occu- 
pied the sides, while in the centre, where the per- 
forming tank now is, was a collection of small 
tanks housing sea-anemones and other forms of 
sea-life — in fact, a little marine collection as good 
as that at the Horniman Museum at Forest Hill, 
the only one in London at the present day. 
The Reptile House, a building whose arrange- 
ment and upkeep I always admired, was also 
better then than now, in my opinion; certainly they 
have never had a keeper there: to compare with 
Tyrrell, now retired, with the esteem and respect 
of everybody. A good idea of the personnel of 
the Gardens in the old days may, by the way, be 
formed from that amusing series, so admirably il- 
lustrated by Mr. Shepherd, which was published 
under the title of "Zigzags at the Zoo" in the 
"Strand Magazine" many years ago. If it has 
never been reprinted in book form, it certainly 
ought to be, for its humour remains, though cir- 
cumstances and characters have changed so much. 
The old Insect House, now used for small 
mammals, was also full of nice things, and served 
for choice and rare birds, etc., as well as the 
lower forms of life. The new Caird Insect House 
covers the site of two simple enclosures where 
that interesting bird, the Brush-Tuskey, used to 
breed; I saw it do so for the last time at the 
beginning of the new management. 
The greatest improvement there has been in 
the general upkeep of the Gardens has been the 
asphalting of the paths, which is very recent; any- 
one who remembers what the old gravel paths, 
periodically laid with ccckle shells which the public 
squashed into the clay, were like in wet weather, 
