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THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS. 



The great event at the Zoological Gardens during July was the 

 completion of the new Seal Pond, which was started at the beginning 

 of the year, and stands on the site of some Goose-paddocks, alongside 

 the enclosures of the Ostrich House. The pond, containing about 

 96,481 gallons and measuring about thirty by eighteen yards, is six feet 

 at the deepest and two feet at the shallowest end. At the deepest end 

 rises to a height of twenty-six feet or so an imposing edifice of natural 

 and artificial rockwork resembling a stratified sandstone cliff. At its 

 base are the sleeping shelters for the Seals ; and some eight feet above 

 the water projects a slab of rock, forming a diving platform. In 

 addition to the Common Seal and the female Californian Sea-Lion 

 which have been in the menagerie for a few years, three young males 

 of the last-mentioned species have been purchased as occupants of the 

 pond. The feeding of these animals every afternoon is one of the 

 great attractions at the Gardens. 



The Society has more Leopards offered to it than space can be 

 found to accommodate. Two of these animals, however, received 

 during the past month, are of special interest, and make valuable 

 additions to the fine series of these animals now in the Gardens. One 

 of them, a cub, presented by Mr. F. H. Melland, came from North- 

 east Rhodesia ; the other, a subadult female, presented by Mr. Bullin, 

 was captured near Hong Kong. Tracing them from east to west, 

 there are now in the Gardens Leopards from Hong Kong, Malacca, 

 Ceylon, India, Persia, Somaliland, East and Central Africa. In the 

 case of the Asiatic specimens it is interesting to note that the richest- 

 coloured example comes from Hong Kong, and the palest from Persia. 

 Of more scientific, though less popular interest than the Leopards is a 

 Little Ant-eater, or Tamandua, which is feeding well, and seems 

 likely to thrive. 



Although overshadowed in importance by the Seal Pond, the new 

 aviary for Plovers and small perching birds is admitted on all hands 

 to be the prettiest aviary in the Gardens. Lying between the back of 

 the Lions' House and the great lawn, it rises to a height of about 

 twenty feet, and covers an area of about twenty- six by eighteen yards. 

 In the middle there is a large irregularly shaped pond, planted with 

 rushes at the back, with water-lilies in the middle, and filled in with 

 gravel to form shallows for the wading birds in front. In front of the 

 pond there is a stretch of white sand ; behind it and at the sides grow 

 lilacs, hollies, laurels, forming a shrubbery for the smaller birds to 



