846 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh . [sess. 
litter) the period of gestation was lengthened out to eighty-six 
days, but this was no doubt due to the unusually large size of this 
litter. 
All the puppies of the first litter died within a few days of 
their birth. The conditions under which they were born were 
very unfavourable. The only preparation which was made was 
the removal of the male from the cage. The cage was in the 
small carnivora house, and the only means of secluding the mother 
was by boarding up the front of the den. This was not sufficient. 
The noise of the visitors in the house alarmed the mother so 
much that during the day-time she kept continually careering 
round her compartment with one or more of the puppies in her 
mouth, seeking a place where she could conceal them. The puppies 
stood this treatment for three days and then they all succumbed. 
On the second occasion elaborate precautions were taken to 
reproduce as far as possible the conditions under which these 
animals breed in a state of nature. In a secluded part of the 
Gardens a den was prepared from the back of which a narrow 
passage, constructed to resemble a burrow, led into a second 
smaller compartment. The burrow, and the recess to which it led, 
were buried deeply under a mass of closely packed straw and peat- 
moss, with the object of deadening the many noises that take place 
in a zoological garden. The prospective mother took very kindly 
to her new quarters, and when her young were born she showed 
none of the former restiveness and came out at regular intervals to 
the front den to feed. After a day or two had elapsed a mistake 
was made. A foster-mother in the form of an Irish terrier having 
become available, the temptation to remove some of the puppies 
and place them under her care proved too great, and accordingly 
two were selected for this purpose. The next day one of the 
remaining three puppies was found dead at a distance from the 
others. Evidently the keeper’s hand had touched it, and the 
mother had thrust it out from the others and had allowed it to die 
of cold. This alarmed us for the safety of the remaining two, and 
we determined to rear three with the foster-mother. One only 
was left with the mother, and on the morning following the second 
removal it had totally disappeared. It had been devoured by the 
mother. 
