ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
93 
slim structures made of jute-stems and of grass in which the 
natives of Lower Bengal cultivate their pepper (pan leaves) 
plants. Many years ago, the late Dr. Thomas Anderson, 
Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, adopted the prin¬ 
ciple of the native pepper-house for keeping orchids and 
other shade-loving tropical plants, and Dr. King has 
amplified the idea by erecting iron structures, the roofs of 
which are covered with a thin layer of grass in order to break 
the sun’s rays, while creeping plants are trained up the sides 
to give additional shade. In this House which con¬ 
stitutes the Great Aviary of the Garden, the large cages 
are placed on handsome iron brackets attached to the 
outer supports of the building, and are embowered in lux¬ 
uriant vegetation. Probably no other Garden in the 
world has such a striking combination of foliage and 
plumage as is met with here. All the birds are either Par¬ 
rots, Cockatoos, Fleshy-tongued Parrots, Conures, 
Parrakeets, or Brush-tongued Parrots. They belong to 
the Ccirinatce , or birds with a keeled breast-bone, one of the 
two great sections into which living birds are sub-divided, 
and which includes all of them, except the Ostriches, Emus, 
Cassowaries, and Kiwis, which have no keel on their 
breast-bone. There are a number of fossil birds, and these 
* 
constitute the division Saururce or lizard-tailed birds, 
some of which had also teeth like lizards. But all of 
these remarkable combinations of lizard and bird are 
now extinct. The section Carinatce is divided into 
13 Orders: 1st, the Falcons, Ospreys and Owls ; 2nd, the 
Climbing birds and those with wide gapes ; 3rd, the Perch¬ 
ing birds, i. e ., all ordinary birds, such as crows, sparrows, 
&c. ; 4th, the Pigeons ; 5th, the Game birds ; 6th, the 
Wading birds ; 7th, the Herons ; 8th, the Geese and ducks ; 
