220 
YOUNG ANIMALS AT THE ZOO 
pond where she was standing, but without success, as 
they were not within reach. 
“ She then plunged into the water to them, and 
began to play with one of them for a short time, and 
put her head close to its ears, as if to make it under- 
stand what she meant ; the next moment she made a 
spring out of the pond, with the young one holding on 
to the fur at the root of the tail by its teeth ; this she 
did several times during a quarter of an hour, as the 
young ones kept going into the water as fast as she 
got them out. Sometimes the young held on by the 
fur of her sides, sometimes by that at the tail. As 
soon as there was sufficient water for her to reach 
them from the side of the pond, she took hold of 
them near the ears with her mouth, and drew them 
out, and led them round the pond close to the fence, 
and kept chattering to them, as if telling them not to 
go into the pond again.” 
A litter of young racoons were born in the spring 
of 1894. Unfortunately they all died, just as it was 
hoped that they had passed the most dangerous time 
of infancy. On the other hand, the little Caucasian 
bear cubs, which arrived at Easter, throve amazingly, 
and in three months grew to the size of a retriever 
dog, though they had not abandoned the youthful 
habit of sucking the paws and “ humming,” to signify 
that they wanted to be fed. But the great and 
notable birth of the year, almost contemporaneous 
with that of the infant prince, and worthy to be noted 
as a prodigium , if the keeping of Sibylline books were 
