REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
233 
choice; but it has been found that too many regular meals in captivity 
affect them deleteriously, and so they are docked their Sunday meal and 
seem to thrive well upon it. The corn-eaters do not suffer this pen- 
ance ; but as they are always fed in the early morning before visitors are 
admitted to the grounds, their meals do not interest the public like those 
of the carnivora. 
All kinds and conditions of horses find their way to the Zoo for a 
painless end — and they do have a painless end, too, for the butcher holds 
his rifle close to the doomed animals’ heads, and there is never a miss 
in the quick extinction of life as the poor horses drop at his feet. Occa- 
sionally a horse comes in in such a fearful condition that as it reaches 
the horses’ paddock it drops from exhaustion, and then a merciful shot 
saves it the torture of trying to rise again. Such horses are at once 
carted off to the boiling down works, and their hides are all that is good 
of them. But others come in with a framework that can be filled out 
by judicious feeding — and enough of it — and these are given perhaps 
three months of peace in a paradise where there are no more aching 
bones from overwork, and no more gnawings of hunger. If their teeth 
are in good enough condition to crop the grass, or eat the best of hay, 
they are happy indeed. One man brought in such a wreck not long ago 
and asked what they would give for him. 
“But we only buy horses here; we have no use for clothes-props !” 
said Mr. Wilkie, as he looked the poor beast over. 
“That’s a horse; what yer givin’ us?” came the retort. 
By way of reply Mr. Wilkie put a hat on one shoulder and a coat 
on its haunch, and there they hung without fear of falling. 
The man gasped. 
“Well,” he confessed, “I’ve never seen that done before. What’s 
the worth of his hide?” 
But three months of feeding and rest turned the prop into quite a 
respectable creature. Other poor wrecks cannot even nibble with their 
stumps of teeth, and it becomes a torture of Tantalus to see the food they 
cannot eat to allay their pangs. These are soon put out of their misery. 
Many a man brings up an old friend in excellent condition, but with 
some defect that means the end of work, and he gives him to the Zoo 
in order that there shall be no pain at the end of a life of faithful 
service. It is always affecting to witness the parting of two friends 
like this. These horses can always be put out of their pain without 
any preliminary feeding up. At the gates the owner will give his final 
petting for farewell, and as he puts his arms around the creature’s neck 
