WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
Now it appears that the model of the Dodo was thought 
so much of by the scientific world that they allowed it to 
go down to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, and there it 
was destroyed in the great fire of 1866 and lost for ever. 
It will be seen from the foregoing notes that at a very 
early age my father evinced a great delight in all matters 
connected with Natural History. In those early days 
of his career scientific men as well as collectors of rare 
birds, and especially of rare birds’ eggs, made his house 
a resort, and the reputation of his extraordinary skill 
in the art of taxidermy became so widely spread that he 
was obliged to remove into larger premises about the 
latter part of the year 1846. It is probable that there 
are few, if any, of those early zoologists and collectors 
still living who remember that he removed his business to 
a large house in Great College Street, Camden Town. In 
his new home his circle of admirers increased, many of 
whom were the founders of the Zoological Society of 
London, and then it was that his first business connections 
with that Society commenced. 
It was in that house he worked not only for the Zoologi- 
cal Society, but for nearly all the scientific men of the age, 
and established museums. He was also honoured with 
commands from her Majesty the Queen, and H.R.H. the 
Prince Consort. He there prepared all his exhibits for 
the 1851 Exhibition, among which, by permission of her 
Majesty, several of the Queen’s specimens — referred to 
above in his reminiscences — which are believed to be now 
at Windsor Castle. 
After the close of the Exhibition of 1851 the Crystal 
Palace Company was formed, and my father in his notes 
says ; — “ this led to my appointment as Naturalist to the 
Company in 1852.” In the November, a few months after 
his taking up the post at the Palace, he was cast down 
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