xvm 
INTRODUCTION. 
of the British Isles, has not been naturalized with us, inasmuch as it is, of all game-birds, the most delicious, 
of consummate beauty, and of unconquerable hardihood, ‘ and adapted, moreover,’ according to Mr. George 
Chichester Oxenden, who has seen and shot these birds in most European countries, ‘ to every variety of 
cover, from pine-forests to hazel- and oak-copses.’ But it is not too late in the day for the Acclimatization 
Society to take the Hazel-Hen in hand ; and if the localities were suitable for the purpose (and such there 
are, no doubt, in England and Scotland), and the attempt were made with from twenty to fifty brace of 
these birds, I see no reason why it should not succeed.” 
That the introduction of the Pheasant, the Guinea-fowl, and the Turkey has been to a certain extent 
successful must be admitted ; but it is to a certain extent only ; for it is believed by competent authorities 
that the Pheasant if left to itself would die out iu thirty years, and the Guinea-fowl and Turkey in a much 
shorter time. Nursers, feeders, and watchers are absolutely necessary for the preservation of these three 
birds, just as the safety and health of the Elands in Lord Hill’s Park at Hawkstone are dependent upon the 
keeper who feeds and nightly shelters them during inclement seasons. 
Had 1 not had ample experience on the subject of naturalization, I should not have prolonged these 
remarks ; but having for the last forty years been a close observer of the denizens of the Gardens of the 
Zoological Society of London, a Society justly popular for its interest and usefulness, I have not failed to 
note that, however high our hopes may have been raised respecting the probability of the successful intro- 
duction of many valuable species, nothing but bitter disappointment has been the result. Two or three 
instances will suffice. Soon after the arrival of the beautiful Mandarin Ducks they commenced laying, and 
hatched out several clutches of young. It was therefore only natural to infer that this lovely denizen of the 
Celestial Empire would hereafter grace our ponds and lakes ; but such has not been the case, and very 
sparingly indeed does the bird breed after the second or third year of its introduction. Three species of the 
equally beautiful Ceriornithes^ or so-called Horned Pheasants, have at one time or other also graced the 
gardens. They gave early evidence that they would reproduce their kinds ; and many of them did so ; but, 
alas ! the same result followed ; for in a very few years all, both old and young, sickened and died. A like 
fate attended the fine Crossoptilons : they laid freely, and a numerous progeny were raised during the first 
two or three years ; but they ultimately all perished ; and thus these fine and rare members of the 
Phasianidcs, which formed unrivalled ornaments to the Gardens in 1870, were in 1872 not to be seen. 
Many other instances might be cited in support of this view of the impossibility of naturalizing a foreign 
species. Nature, as a rule, places each species in the locality best adapted to it ; and its removal to any 
other is pretty certain to end in failure. The attempts at introduction of these and other birds by such a 
society as the Zoological, however, have this good end : they enable the public and the scientific 
ornithologist to view in a living state objects of which otherwise they could only inspect the dried skins — 
