60 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
natural history is the most accommodating of all 
pursuits as far as money is concerned; you can 
study it for nothing at all in wild or free nature 
even in town parks, or you can spend money in 
any amount in keeping up a private collection, as 
has often been done in times past. If, then, we 
are to be faced with a " tight" time for long after 
the war, it is well to realise that a very moderate 
expenditure will be productive of great and per- 
manent interest and pleasure, for collections of 
animals can be of any size, and their upkeep can 
be almost nil, if suitable subjects are selected. 
I purpose here to indicate certain groups of 
animals which lend themselves to easy manage- 
ment by one individual, and, if not obtainable in 
all cases now, will no doubt be so in happier times 
as they were heretofore. 
A very attractive group is one denned, not by 
its members belonging to any particular zoologi- 
cal unit, but by the common fact of their domesti- 
cation by man for their attractive and useful quali- 
ties — the various tame-bred animals. Quite a zoo 
could be made up of these, but a large space is 
needed for such animals as camels, cattle and 
buffaloes, and even the bigger birds such as the 
peacock and rhea; the latter can now be fairly 
called domesticated like the ostrich, since a; white 
breed has been established. 
But a very nice group can be made up of the 
small creatures which can be kept in any back- 
garden or public square — should public bodies 
take this matter up — and cause no annoyance by 
noise or in any other way. 
Few though the species are, considerable 
variety can be obtained owing to their diverse 
colours; it should be an aim to display all these, 
especially including the original wild hue, the 
contrast thus afforded being both pretty and in- 
structive. 
To commence with the mammals, we have 
the rabbit and guinea-pig, which may be kept 
together in a sufficiently large enclosure; and it is 
unnecessary to dilate on the variety the different 
breeds represent. The same may be said of tame 
rats and mice, though these would, of course, re- 
quire to be kept separate from each other. 
If our amateur wanted to go outside vege- 
tarian animals, he or she could keep a pair of 
ferrets, one of the white and one of the coloured 
variety, which would be found interesting enough 
if kept in a run — well-secured of course — rather 
than a hutch. 
Among the smaller domestic birds we have 
the dove, with its white and coloured forms; the 
pigeon, with its infinitely greater range of varie- 
ties; the canary, domestic Java sparrow, and Ben- 
galee; and last, but not least, the budgerigar, the 
best small bird for the beginner, which has well- 
proved its worth by being, owing to the ease of 
breeding it, the only foreign bird obtainable at a 
reasonably cheap rate during this period of high 
prices, both in the green and yellow forms. 
Here I may perhaps be allowed to make a 
suggestion as to the freer 'propagation of the 
beautiful blue form, which is so far very rare, and 
produces a great preponderance of hens. Rather 
than mate these back to the original green, as 
has usually been done, I should put them with 
yellow cocks; the result of such a mating would 
in all probability be the production of greens, 
since it is well known that two different abnormal 
colour-varieties when paired tend to reproduce 
the original type. These greens when mated 
ought in their turn to have a tendency to produce 
blues and yellows again, and we must not forget 
that some at any rate of the early blues are said 
to have been bred from the yellow form, one such 
variation seems prone to give rise to another. 
In such a collection as I am sketching the 
gold and amherst pheasants should not be for- 
gotten; they must not, of course, be kept to- 
gether, but might share the aviaries of the smaller 
birds, of which canaries and Bengalees may go 
together, and budgerigars and Javas, while doves 
may be associated with either or with pigeons. 
If the aviaries are large enough for a little pool, 
Carolina ducks, if to be got unpinioned, will be 
an attraction; the domestication of Mandarins has 
apparently lapsed, as they are now almost im- 
possible to get, although becoming established 
in the wild state in several parts of our country — 
Kent, Bedfordshire, and the Border. I saw one 
female on the Thames last year, and heard of 
one on the Solway, a hundred miles from any 
place where such birds were kept. 
Of reptiles we have no species in domestica- 
tion, and of amphibians only the axolotl, of which 
there is a white variety, forming a nice contrast 
with the original black. This requires indoor 
treatment, and should be kept in tanks, like gold 
fish and other fancy fish, which are most easy 
creatures to keep, requiring almost the minimum 
of attention, but to exhibit their beauty properly 
must be view horizontally through glass, as the 
vertical view on them in a pond is not interesting. 
Ponds, however, are best to breed them in. 
Among domestic insects, we have the silk- 
worm moths — not only the ordinary kind, but 
several fine species cultivated in the East, such 
as that which produces the well-known Shantung 
silk; here again are indoor subjects. Bees also 
are of absorbing interest when kept in an obser- 
vation hive with an outlet to the garden, as has 
often been done in London. 
