OPENING ADDRESS. 3 



grounds and structures already to hand, he now planned 

 and erected a grand " New Aviary " of large extent and 

 laid out for great distances all around it large fenced pad- 

 docks and rustic sheds for deer and cattle, and extensive 

 accommodation for water-fowl. His tastes were inborn, 

 and his devotion thereto culminated in his election to the 

 Presidency of the Linnean Society, and subsequently to 

 that of its offshoot, the Zoological Society of London, 

 originated in 1824 under the auspices of Sir Thomas 

 Stamford Baffles, late Governor of Sumatra. The Society 

 began with unlimited aims, as regarded its living collec- 

 tion, in the Eegent's Park, and shortly after established 

 a farm at Kingston in the hope that its larger space and 

 greater privacy might prove more suitable for objects akin 

 to Lord Derby's — that of breeding creatures useful or or- 

 namental. However, after a few years (in 1834), while 

 Lord Derby was extending his labours, the Society con- 

 tracted theirs by giving up the farm on account of expense. 



The accommodation devoted to the living collection at 

 Knowsley was roughly estimated at 100 acres for all pur- 

 poses, including old and new aviaries, paddocks, planta- 

 tions, coppices, &c, the general term " Aviary" finding 

 acceptance and use with the inhabitants and people 

 generally, but a line was drawn at Menagerie as being 

 unmanageable and altogether foreign. Some thirty names 

 of attendants were down on the pay lists. The Superin- 

 tendent and ruling spirit in all things was Mr. John 

 Thompson, a man of suitable genius and of great vigour 

 and energy, selected from the staff of the Zoological 

 Society. 



My own appearance at Knowsley, from the staff of the 

 Zoological Society, in May, 1843, as his assistant and 

 amanuensis, was due to his kindly recommendation to the 

 Earl, and continued to the close in 1851, when the four- 



