CAMELS FROM THE SOUDAN. 
The two camels were presented to the Zoological 
Society by John St. Aiibyn, Esq., on June 6, 1884. 
Having been desired to send a keeper to receive them 
and bring them to London, I, in accordance with this 
request, despatched one of the keepers to Portsmouth for 
that purpose. I was given to understand that the camels 
had been found, by a man, on the battlefields after the 
affair at El Teb, in a most pitiable condition. When this 
keeper took charge of them, the largest (the mother of the 
little one) was supported in slings, she not being able to 
stand. She was covered with sores and abscesses, having 
been wounded in several places; her bones were nearly 
through her skin, and the skin was not only destitute of 
hair, but was covered all over with filth and minute 
parasites. Notwithstanding the wretched plight of this 
poor animal, the keeper had her lifted and placed in a 
conveyance, and brought her and her poor starving calf to 
the Gardens. I was much shocked at the sight of them, 
and had not a little fear that they might introduce some 
disorder among our animals. 
To guard against this, I had them placed in an out- 
building far away from the other camels. 
Their shocking condition caused me to ask permission 
of the Society to have them destroyed, as an act of mercy, 
believing it would be charitable to put them out of their 
misery, for their recovery appeared to me to be hopeless. 
I had the mother again supported by slings in order 
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