4 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
Rufous-necked. Of the kangaroos there were five, not 
counting a baby one still in the pouch. It, however, was . 
big enough to sit up and take notice, and its pretty little 
brown head could be seen looking out quite contentedly as 
its mother hopped about the enclosure. 
In a pen by itself was an African Meerkat, which was 
shortly to be sent over to New South Wales to Lady Cullen 
as a pet for her young daughter. A pair of meerkats 
a different’ variety was in another pen, and close adjoining 
a pair of American squirrels; there were also two pairs 
of Tasmanian flying squirrels, both pairs having young 
ones, and three wombats. These animals are becoming rare 
in the more settled parts, such as Cradle Mt. Two native 
cats, the black and white variety, and brown and white, a 
pair of ‘baboons, and a small monkey are also included in 
the collection. 
The bird section was the next, to be visited, and here 
the writer’s foot was on its native heath, so to speak, not 
because of possessing any scientific knowledge of them, but 
being a lover of the feathered tribe, they naturally ap- 
pealed to her even more than the animals. Mrs. Roberts’ 
collection of birds is really a very extensive one, but to 
write of them all in detail would take too much space, so 
I shall just mention a few that are of special interest and 
summarise the rest in conclusion. After the peacock, who 
spread his gorgeous fan for our admiration, perhaps the 
handsomest birds are the pheasants, of which Mrs. Roberts 
has quite a number, and it was hard to decide whether 
the golden pheasant, the Lady Amherst, or a hybrid (a 
eross between these two) should hold pride of place for 
beauty, while the silver and Mongolian pheasants had their 
own claims to distinction. The Lady Amherst has a curi- 
ous tippet of speckled black and white feathers around her, 
or rather his, neck, and when the bird is displaying, these 
feathers look like a little umbrella. Mrs. Roberts has a 
very beautiful stuffed specimen of a Lady Amherst, in 
which the tippet is elevated in this way. Perhaps even 
more interesting than the pheasants are the herons, of 
which there are two—a Tasmanian blue-fronted heron and 
a white heron from the banks of the Murray River. This 
bird, which has been so ruthlessly destroyed in the breed- 
ing season for the sake of its plumes, is a melancholy ex- 
ample of the ‘‘frightfulness’’ of man where birds and ani- 
mals are concerned. 
