The zoological gardens of Europe, their history and chief features — John Shaqi
The zoological gardens of Europe, their history and chief featuresPeel, C. V. A. (Charles Victor Alexander)
History
The zoological gardens of Europe, their history and chief features
Peel, C. V. A. (Charles Victor Alexander)
Zoos
On leaving the ostrich house, the camels’ and llamas’ enclosure is
next encountered. The houses are prettily painted in bright colours.
The collection of llamas is very complete. We pass on to the old
aviary containing the pheasants; a large new pheasantry, on the same
plan as that of the one in the Zoological Gardens at Hanover, is now
under consideration. Here are also to be found specimens of Amherst’s
pheasant and the vulturine guinea-fowl from North-East Africa.
Leaving the restaurant on your left, you pass through a young chestnut
avenue and come to the antelope and deer houses, standing in a long
row. The small deer and the hardier kinds of antelope are found
here. Water-buck, nylgai, and two white-tailed gnus are to be seen.
Père David’s deer is one of the occupants of the deer sheds. Other
deer found are the Virginian deer, axis deer, sika from Japan, and a
very grotesque-looking deer from China--Reeves’ muntjac (_Cervulus
Reevesi_). On the other side of these sheds is the large-deer
enclosure, with pretty houses attached. Here are found wapiti from
America, and the Altai, one with a curious malformation of horn. At
the end of the deer enclosure is the old bear pit, with two fine big
pens. This was a present from the late architect, Koch. There is also
a cage and tank containing two polar bears; a grizzly bear in the
next cage, with rockery and flowing water; a pair of South American
rare spectacled bears (_U. ornatus_), Malay bear, Thibet bear, Japan
bear, an Indian and a Western Asian. Opposite to the bear pit is the
flamingo pond, in one of the prettiest situations in the Garden. Green
banks, groups of trees, storks, cranes and flamingoes make a lovely
picture. From the terrace of the restaurant a very picturesque view of
the Garden is to be had. On the left hand of the pond are a sheep and
goat rockery, and a building containing Barbary sheep, thar, onahura,
and a herd of moufflon--that extremely beautiful black, brown, and
white wild goat. The latter have frequently bred in the Garden. In
Corsica and Sardinia, for want of game laws, they are fast dying out.
There is a new fox and jackal house, brick-built in the Gothic style,
and having on one side a massive tower. The cages are roomy, the floors
cemented, and the sanitary arrangements good. Besides the German wolf
are to be found the grey wolf and the black wolf of North America, also
several jackals, foxes, and fennecs, including the Arctic and common
foxes, and _C. Hagenbecki_ from Somaliland. Two striped hyænas and one
spotted hyæna are housed in front of the bear pits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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