HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
GENERAL NOTES. 
THAT an extremely interesting and gratifying 
event has taken place at the Scottish Zoological 
Park, Corstorphine — the birth of a litter of lion 
cubs. The father of the cubs is "Brutus," the 
fine forest-bred lion presented to the Zoological 
Soicety two years ago by the late Mr. John 
Jordan, and the mother, a later gift from the 
same donor, is also forest-bred; the cubs ought, 
therefore, to be of good type. They are not, 
of course, on view at present, but if all goes 
well with them, visitors to the park will be able 
to see them in some five or six weeks. 
There have been several other interesting 
additions to the collection in the park recently, 
chief among them being three zebus (the small, 
humped cattle of India), presented by the Cor- 
poration of the City of Glasgow; a chacma ba- 
boon, and a coati-mundi, the latter being a car- 
nivorous animal of the bear family, but rather 
resembling the civet. 
THAT a gift of £10,000 has been intimated by 
the Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees for an 
important development of the Scottish Zoologi- 
cal Park at Corstorphine. This handsome grant 
will be devoted to the building and equipping 
of an aquarium upon lines which will probably 
make it the first of its kind in the United King- 
dom. The building of the aquarium will not 
be begun until the war is finished, but in the 
meantime a site has been chosen on the south 
side of the Park, which will place the building 
with its frontage to the main road, and thus 
facilitate the opening of the aquarium to the 
public during the winter evenings when the 
remainder of the Park is closed. The present 
intention is that the aquarium should contain 
both marine and fresh water animal life. 
The Carnegie Trustees have laid down as 
conditions of the grant that the operations 
should be commenced within two years; that the 
building should be associated with the name of 
Mr. Carnegie; and that upon the days when the 
public are admitted to the Park at 6d. per head 
the charge for admission to the aquarium should 
not be more than Id. per head and 2d. in the 
case of parents and small children coming to- 
gether. On other days the Society may fix an 
entrance fee, but no part of the revenue coming 
from the aquarium is to be devoted to the gen- 
eral purposes of the Park. An Advisory Com- 
mittee of the Society is at present considering 
how best the grant can be applied. 
THAT Richard L. Garner, who several years ago 
made a study of the language of the apes in 
the African forests, will soon again take up his 
temporary residence in a steel cage in the 
French Congo region to resume his scientific r ^ -f- 
studies of the gorilla and chimpanzee. His trip) f*^> ^ 
is under the auspices of the Smithsonian Insti-S fait 5, 
tution at Washington and of the New York*- 
Zoological Society. 
Professor Garner will attempt to increase 
his vocabulary of words used by the apes, and 
will carry phonographic records to record the 
language of monkeys. The scientist will con- 
struct a cage of steel rods 5-16th of an- inch in 
diameter, enclosed by a netting of steel wire, 
on a pineapple plantation in the Lake Fernan 
Vaz basin, about two degrees south of the equa- 
tor, and 150 miles from the coast. The cage 
will be covered with branches and leaves, and 
Professor Garner will live in it while pursuing 
his studies. 
THAT a Correspondent has kindly sent me a 
photograph of a Brazilian scientist's snake farm. 
He says : — 
"This symmetrically planned enclosure 
with its curious mounds is alive with poison- 
ous fangs. It is the snake farm of Dr. Vital 
Brasil, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who is a great 
authority on snake bites and their cure. By 
experiments on the inhabitants of his farm he 
has evolved a cure for almost every variety 
of snake-bite poison known to the South 
American countries." 
THAT Prof. H. G. Plimmer, in a recent report 
presented to the Zoological Society, said that 
there was a considerable reduction last year in 
the death-rate at the Zoological Gardens, the 
numbers being as follows : — mammals, 280; 
birds, 706; reptiles, ITS — representing, respec- 
tively, 21 per cent, 27 per cent, and 29 per cent 
of the total there, including new arrivals during 
the year. There had been two cases of cancer, 
and, we are sorry to say, many birds had died 
from overheating. 
THAT the direct importations into London the 
last month have been practically nil, with the 
exception of the 6 Blue Foxes, 2 White Foxes, 
1 Japanese Bear, 1 Indian Porcupine, and 56 
Grey Squirrels, 7 Basket Pheasants from France 
2 enormous Chimpanzees from Sette lama, 
with a few Grey Parrots. 
THAT the importations into Liverpool : 45 Grey 
Parrots, 20 African Monkeys, with a few Ama- 
zons. 
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