A YEAR AT THE ZOO 
335 
this, as well as of the curious and interesting details of 
the maintenance of a menagerie of 2,413 birds, beasts, 
and reptiles of all kinds and sizes, from the African 
elephant and Indian rhinoceros, down to the tiny lem- 
mings and the last litter of dingo-puppies, is to be found 
in the financial Report for the year. It is a unique 
document, and deserves attentive study. Those whose 
custom it is to buy paper packets of broken bread 
and buns, duly labelled “ Food for the animals,” at the 
refreshment-stalls, or who know from experience that 
there is hardly any creature there, from the hippo- 
potamus to the smallest monkey, which disdains to 
eat a raisin, will be astonished at the quantity and 
variety of the solid nutriment which has to be provided 
yearly for 650 “ beasts,” 1,391 birds, and 366 reptiles ; 
though those more conversant with the powers of 
consumption of “ stock ” in an ordinary farmyard 
would probably hesitate to take a feeding-contract at 
a lower figure. The year’s cost for provisions con- 
sumed in the Gardens is a little under ^4000: 105 
loads of clover, 1 53 loads of meadow-hay, 130 quarters 
of oats, and 340 quarters of bran, may be put down 
roughly as the quantity of vegetable food required for 
the large antelopes, elephants, zebras, and wild sheep. 
Bread and milk are almost as safe a diet for most 
animals as for human beings, and 5000 quarterns of 
bread and 6000 quarts of milk represent the quantity 
of this wholesome food consumed at the Zoo. Most 
of the insect-eating birds, many monkeys, and certain 
snakes and lizards are egg-eaters ; and nineteen thousand 
