Next in order is a large children’s playground, replete with swings for their amusement. There is a very picturesque rockery for wild sheep and aurochs, and American bison enclosures backed with rockwork. A most imposing lion house is now encountered, after passing through a fine sculptured entrance. It will be found very roomy inside, and it contains a large number of dens, besides three large circular open-air cages. In one of the latter were housed no less than seven lion-cubs, all about six months old. Opposite the outside cages were a couple of brindled gnus, a pair of leucoryx antelopes, and an _Oryx beisa_, grazing in paddocks. In a house close by were lodged a pair of full-grown hippopotami and a baby born in the Gardens. The parents have bred no less than twelve youngsters between 1886 and 1900, the period of gestation being 238 days. Several young ones have been sold to other Gardens for very large prices. Pony and donkey carriages run about the Gardens carrying children. A very good band played all the afternoon when I was there, and the Gardens were full of fashionably-dressed people. Some of the statues in the Gardens are very fine, notably a group representing an Indian horseman attacked by jaguars. One of the things which will probably strike the visitor most is the enormous number of ducks, the ponds literally swarming with them. CHAPTER X JARDIN ZOOLOGIQUE, GHENT, FOUNDED 1851: DIRECTOR, M. NIEPELS It was simply pouring with rain when I left Brussels to visit the Zoological Garden at Ghent; but, as luck would have it, I had scarcely paid my franc and passed the turnstile into the Garden when the rain ceased and the sun popped in and out of clouds. Passing a duck-pond covered with pochard, the visitor comes to a café and the usual concert-hall found in all zoological gardens on the Continent. In front of the hall is a large open space with a band-stand in the middle. Just beyond is the parrot and small-bird house, in which one of the parrots was imitating a cuckoo to perfection. In the centre of this house was a large case containing stuffed animals and birds, which had lived at some time or other in the Garden. Close by was a large pheasant and peacock aviary, with indoor pens fitted with plate-glass sides. After passing a quantity of poultry pens, the next objects which attract the visitor’s attention are the well-filled brown-bear cages. Behind them, in a house rather difficult to find, is a remarkably fine Indian elephant. We next come to a pretty pond with a variety of ducks, mostly sheldrake, swimming upon it. There is a good bird-of-prey aviary, containing, amongst other birds, a remarkably fine condor. [Illustration: BARBARY SHEEP, GHENT.]