2l8 
YOUNG ANIMALS AT THE ZOO 
born blind. They are sold, and fetch each. 
Esquimaux puppies, which are often born at the Zoo, 
are amusing little creatures, ready to eat boiled tripe 
from a dish until their little stomachs resemble a 
cricket-ball, an instance of heredity no doubt trans- 
mitted by generations of half-starved ancestors. Young 
marmosets and gerbilles, Angora goats, ibexes, moun- 
tain sheep and wapiti deer, gazelles and opossums, with 
a brood of young puff-adders, young seagulls, and wild 
geese, hardly complete the list of the year’s increase at 
the Zoo. 
In 1894 the black-headed gulls reared several 
broods in the Gardens, but all the other water-fowl 
in the large aviary failed to rear their young, though 
the ibises nested, and seemed about to lay. 
The water-animals, unlike the water-birds, seldom 
breed at the Zoo. Probably the little ponds and 
pools in which otters, beavers, and seals are kept are 
not large enough to give them that quiet and repose 
which conduces to family life. But otters, true 
Devonshire otters, did once have a litter at the Zoo, 
and the head-keeper, Mr. James Hunt, who was 
greatly interested in their welfare, gave the following 
pretty description of their habits. 1 
“The female otter was presented to the Society by 
Lady Rolle on February 4, 1840, being apparently 
at that time about three months old. In 1846 a 
large male was presented to the Society by the Rev. 
P. M. Brunwin, of Braintree, Essex. Its weight 
1 Proceedings Zool. Soc., Mar. 13, 1847. 
