282 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
notes may possibly also be of present use to professionals and 
amateurs. But it must be remembered that the values in wild 
animal dealing vary probably more than in any other trade, in 
accordance with supply and demand; if, for instance, an in- 
dividual or an institution wants to buy a Lion at short notice, 
and no one is wishing to sell, they may have to pay some hundreds 
of pounds for an animal that at another time its owner would be 
willing to part with for practically nothing in order to save the 
daily cost of keeping it supplied with food. 
‘‘Fancy”’ prices are not included in these notes, though in 
actual trading one is at times quite ready to pay them, or at any 
rate to ‘‘allow”’ for them: as it is a curious fact that the general 
public that will crowd to see, and will pay to see, a Tortoise that 
they hear has cost a hundred golden sovereigns, will take no 
interest in the same reptile should it have been known to have 
changed hands for a ten pound cheque ! 
The amateur must not expect to be at all times able to buy 
beasts or birds for the prices mentioned below. ‘These are, to 
the best of my knowledge, all genuine prices, either of actual 
business transactions or of offers to sell: but, as in many cases 
the offers are of surplus stock, the prices are below the actual 
values of the animals named. 
In some years’ experience, in three continents, both as a 
buyer and a seller of wild animals, and also in the capacities of 
an intermediary and a looker-on, I have been unable to help 
noticing the tendency, both of many amateurs and also of the 
salaried officials of some zoological institutions, to beat down 
and decry the prices asked for specimens by the professional 
zoological collectors and dealers: thisisa regrettable and short- 
sighted policy. In the long run, and taking all risks into con- 
sideration, the pecuniary profits on zoological trading are very 
small—if any. In most cases the collector and dealer carries 
on his work, not from the money that accrues to him from it, 
but from the fact that it is the only way in which he can afford 
to gratify his love for, and his interest in, zoological pursuits. 
There are people in Europe who say, ‘“‘ What an exorbitant 
price to ask for a dead butterfly,” or who write, ‘‘ An absurd 
sum to pay for a young Elephant”: but if these same people 
could only realize the accumulated experience required, the 
