432 THE 4Z00LOGIST. 
but the magnates of imperial Rome captured large numbers of 
leopards, lions, bears, elephants, antelopes, giraffes, camels, rhino- 
ceroses and hippopotami, and ostriches and crocodiles, and kept them 
in captivity, partly for use in the arena, and partly as a display of the 
pomp and power of wealth. In later times royal persons and terri- 
torial nobles frequently kept menageries of wild animals, aviaries and 
aquaria, but all of these have long since vanished. : 
Thus, although the taste for keeping wild animals in captain 
dates from the remotest antiquity, all the modern collections are 
of comparatively recent origin, the oldest being the Imperial Mena- 
gerie of the palace of Schonbrunn, Vienna, which was founded about 
1752, whilst some of the most important are only a few years old. 
These existing collections are of two kinds. A few are the private 
property of wealthy landowners, and their public importance is due 
partly to the opportunity they have afforded for experiments in 
acclimatisation on an extensive scale, and still more to the refuge 
they have given to the relics of decaying species. The Huropean 
bison is one of the best known cases of such preservation, but a still 
more extraordinary instance is that of Pére David's deer, a curious and 
isolated type which was known only in captivity in the Imperial 
Parks of China. The last examples in China were killed in the Boxer 
war, and the species would be absolutely extinct but for the small 
herd maintained by the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. In 1909 
this herd consisted of only twenty-eight individuals; it now numbers 
sixty-seven. The second and best known types of collections of 
living animals are in the public Zoological Gardens and Parks main- 
tained by Societies, private companies, States, and municipalities. 
There are now more than a hundred of these in existence, of which 
twenty-eight are in the United States, twenty in the German Empire, 
five in England, one in Ireland, and none in Scotland. But perhaps 
I may be allowed to say how much I hope that the efforts of the 
Zoological Society of Scotland will be successful, and that before 
many months are over there will be a Zoological Park in the capital 
of Scotland. There is no reason of situation or of climate which can 
be urged against it. The smoke and fog of London are much more 
baleful to animals than the east winds of Edinburgh. The Gardens 
of North Germany and the excellent institution at Copenhagen have 
to endure winters much more severe than those of lowland Scotland, 
whilst the Arctic winter and tropical summer of New York form 
a peculiarly unfortunate combination, and none the less the Bronx 
Park at New York is one of the most delightful menageries in exist- 
ence. The Zoological Society of Scotland will have the great ad- 
vantage of beginning where other institutions have left off ; it will be 
able to profit by the experience and avoid the mistakes of others. The 
Zoological Society of London would welcome the establishment of a 
Menagerie in Scotland, for scientific and practical reasons. As I am 
speaking in Scotland, I may mention two of the practical reasons. 
The first is that in Great Britain we labour under a serious dis- 
advantage as compared with Germany with regard to the importation 
of rare animals. When a dealer in the tropics has rare animals to 
