on their part of distinu-uisliiiij;,- between a 
i^pot of color upon the canvas, luiviuj^ no 
elevatkiii whatevei', ami an object or body 
resting upon it. Several times the sliad- 
o\v made by a tly alighted upon the out- 
side of the tent was pounced upon by 
the wasps on the inside, and such objects, 
mere shadows or stains, were repeatedly 
attacked by the same wasp over and over 
again, often with only half a minute's 
interval or even less than that. I cannot 
now reccollect exactly tlie estimate 1 
made at the time (out failed to record) 
of the relative number of attacks upon 
false objects to those upon proper vic- 
tims, but I am untler the impression that 
the mistakes were to the correct judge- 
ments as twenty or thirty to one. My 
observations were continued for two or 
three hours and repeated on subsequent 
days for briefer times, always with an 
identical result. These observations 
seem to be entirely in keeping with the 
forced experiments of Professor Plateau 
upon the vision of wasps, and lead to the 
conclusion forniulateJ by him that the 
vision of thes ■ insects, even when in 
flight, is exceedingly defect! ve, judged by 
our own standaixls. — Psi/che. 
Zoological tfardens. 
There is no subject in which Iciman 
interest i^^ more indestiiietible than the 
life of wild animals. The reading public 
never tires of the n'orks of new sports- 
men and naturalists. A writer who, 
like Gilbe rt White, joins a talent tor ob- 
sei vation of wild animal life to an exqui- 
site gift of literary expression, is sui'e of 
permanent fame. The more highly civ- 
ilized does man become tlie stronger is 
Iris interest in free and savage life. The 
fi'ontiersman is rather the natural enemy 
of wild life; his instinct is to exterminate 
it. But the instinct of the civilized man 
is to enjo.v and protect it. A writer in 
the American .\ atai-alist has complained 
of the unreasoning imitation which has 
cliaracterized the care of wild anim:ds. 
He does not see whj^ bears should be 
kept in pits. They were flrst so kept in 
the Jardin des Plantes. in Paris, although 
the savant who originated tlie idea died 
without having informed the woild of 
the ground of it. Ever since, bears have 
been kept in pits. Bears, he tells up,should 
lae pei suaded to hibernate ; they do not 
:lo so, because they do not recognize 
their conventional quartei-s as proper 
places of retirement. The same writer 
asserts that nearly all captive animals 
are half blind and have stiff backs, and 
that their unwholesome life is the reason 
of their not breeding. A writer in the 
new Quarterly lieview gives some iLter- 
esting facts with regard to the feeding 
of animals in the London gardens. T'he 
hippopotamus requires some two hun- 
dred pounds of food a day, \\ hile the ele- 
phant, a lai-ger animal, needs only one 
hundred and fifty pounds. IJons and 
tigers get about eight or nine pounds of 
meat, usually hoi'se tlesb. Nevertheless, 
when in their open-air spaces, although 
quite oblivious of people, they eye wist- 
fully the deer and other animals, their 
natural food, they see at a distance. We 
ai-e not informed that the animals now 
have anyihing besides water to drink. In 
Paris , formerlJ^ spirits were given the 
elephants to excite them to special exer- 
tions. If this sort of support were given 
the animals the flying fox would be a 
proper subject for such experiment, and 
might serve the public as a "horrible ex- 
ample." It is asserted on high authority 
ill the "Guide to the Calcutta Zoological 
Gardens'" that in India "the flying foxes 
often [lass the night drinking the toddy 
from the earthen pots into which the 
tapjjed juice of the date tree runs, the 
result being that they either i-eturn home 
in the early morning in a state of riotous 
intoxication or they are found lying at 
the foot of the trees sleeping off the ef- 
fects of the midnight debauch." 'VheQuar- 
terly reviewer tells us that out of defer- 
ence to the Society for the Prevention of 
(Jruelty to Animals the London public is 
not allowed to witness the feeding of 
the snakes. As is well known, many of 
these snakes will not live if deprived of 
their natural food. Accordingl}% live 
rats, mice, birds and frogs are fed them. 
We believe that un the Continent no ob- 
jection is made to the admission of the 
public at this time. Upon the subject of 
the well-being of the captive animals, 
there is another view to that expressed 
by the critic in the American Naturalist. 
It is even a question whether, with the 
improved methods of treatment, animals 
cannot be made happier in confinement 
than in a natural state. There is reason to 
believe that theii- natural state may notb ■ 
a very happy one. An English sports 
man, who long practiced shooting from a 
machan, which is a platform built in a 
tree, and who thus had, while the beaters 
were miles away driving up the game, am- 
])]e opportunity to study from this posit- 
ion the habits of animal life about him, has 
left some curious testimony on this point. 
All animated nature appeared to him to 
be in a continual state of fear and watch- 
fulness. The passing butterfly was 
caught by a bird, and the bird by a snake. 
The deer listened for every sound of 
danger. Even the tiger or the bear, as it 
came along, always looked suspiciously 
at every bush or shadow. There seemed 
to be a general reign of terror. These 
veiws, it will be observed, are very un- 
like the recently expressed ideas of Mr. 
"\fallace. Frank Buckland had also some- 
thing to say on this point. He th'iuglit 
that the animals were happier in tlie 
gardens than they would have been in 
their native homes, and that they lived 
longer. It was his belief that the Vasa 
parrot pi-esented to the London "Zoo" in 
1S30, and which, we understand, is still 
alive, is probably the oldest bird of 
its species in existance.— New York 
Times. 
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