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HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 



peared. No other crocodile that I have seen — 

 and I can boast of seeing hundreds and under 

 all circumstances — ever made a sound. I am cer- 

 tain that they cannot roar or bark, though capa- 

 ble of exclamation on feeling sudden pain." The 

 roars and bellowing of crocodiles seem to be re- 

 served specially for the edification of nervous 

 travellers anxious after colour. 





THE SALE OF GOLDFINCHES IN 

 LONDON. 



KING'S BENCH DIVISION. 

 HARRIS v. LUCAS. 



Before Mr. Justice Darling, Mr. Justice Avorv, 

 and Mr. Justice Salter. 



(Continued from May Number/ 



Mr. Buchanan, for the respondent, said that 

 the Acts were passed for the express purpose of 

 protecting live wild birds. He submitted that it 

 was entirely a question of fact for the magis- 

 trate whether the birds could be said to be "re- 

 cently taken." If they were the case of Flower 

 v. Watts (supra) made it an offence to have such 

 birds in one's possession in London. 



Mr. Justice Darling remarked that there were 

 more puzzles in this Act than anyone had ever 

 seen. 



Mr. Buchanan said that the magistrates' de- 

 cision was right, even if his reasons were wrong. 



JUDGMENT. 



Mr. Justice Darling-, in giving judgment, 

 sa'd that the words ''recently taken" in their 

 ordinary sense would mean taken within a short 

 time previously. To construe the statute under 

 discussion according to the proper use of 1 the 

 English language was impossible, but the present 

 Court — differently constituted — had already, in 

 Flower v. Watts (supra), construed the statute 

 in a way which made it possible to uphold the 

 decision of the magistrate. The judgment's of 

 Lord Alverstone, Mr. Justice Channell, and Mr.' 

 Justice Coleridge were binding". The Act gave 

 no definition as to how many days or weeksi must 

 elapse before it could be said that birds were not 

 recently taken, and gave no definition of "tame" 

 birds. The magistrate was entitled to take into 

 account the time which the birds took to get 

 into a fit condition to stand the journey from Ire- 

 land. The words "recently taken" were, in his 



opinion, used. in the Act of Parliament in a sense 

 in which no one would think of using them any- 

 where else. 



Mr. Justice Avory and Mr. Justice Salter 

 gave judgments to the same effect, the latter ex- 

 pressing the view that any wild bird " recently 

 taken" meant any bird so recently taken that it 

 had not time to become time. 



The appeal was dismissed, with costs. 

 Solicitors — Mr. Harry F. Strouts; Mr. Svd- 

 ney G. Polhill. 





SUMMER FETE AT THE 

 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, DUBLIN. 



OPENED BY THE LORD LIEUTENANT. 



GREAT ARRAY OF ATTRACTIONS. 



The Dublin Zoological Gardens were looking 

 their best yesterday afternoon — and that is say- 

 ing much — when the summer fete in aid of the 

 funds of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland 

 was formally opened by the Lord Lieutenant in 

 presence of a large and fashionable assembly. 

 Overnight there had been a series of heavy thun- 

 der showers, with the result that the flowers and 

 foliage in the gardens were resplendent in all 

 their summer glory and the lawns were all speckled 

 yith newly-opened daisies. In one of the spacious 

 lion cages fronting on to the gardens a lordly 

 beast stalked to and fro,, with a dignity that 

 seemed to have a quaint suggestion of a know- 

 ledge on his part of some function of an excep- 

 tional character being afoot. It is customary to 

 regard the lion as the king of the forest, but, as 

 a matter of fact, this particular lion, like many 

 others in the Zoo, had never seen a tropical 

 forest, and is Irish to the backbone. In conver- 

 sation yesterday, the President of the Royal Zoo- 

 logical Society spoke warmly and affectionately of 

 our Dublin lions. "I don't know what we would 

 have done but for the lions during the war," 

 said Sir Frederic kMoore; "they practically kept 

 the Gardens going. We realised about £500 dur- 

 ing the past four years from the sale of lions — - 

 and that, without depleting our stock, which is 

 at present quite up to the pre-war level." Thus 

 have our Dublin lions defended their home during- 

 the war as effectively as did their forest fore- 

 fathers. Unhappily, however, for the peace of 

 mind of the Council, the lions were an exception 

 to the general rule, and all the other animals, 

 birdsj, and reptiles, had to be maintained without 

 any corresponding contribution. 



