Guide to the Gardens of the Zoological Society of LondonBradbury, Evans, & Company, 1870 - 59 pages |
Common terms and phrases
abundant acclimatisation adult Africa allied animal Antelope Apteryx Arabs Asia Asiatic Australia Aviary Babirusa BARASINGHA Bear beautiful Bengal Black Black Kite Black-necked Swan Bower-Bird bred breeds Burchell's Zebra cages Camel carnivorous Cervus colour common confinement Crane Crested Curassow Deer Duck EAGLE OWLS eggs Eland Elephant England European examples exhibited extremely Falcon feed Felis female forests genus Giraffe Goose Gould GRASS-PARRAKEETS Grus habits herds Hippopotamus Hornbill HOUSE Hyena inclosure India inhabits interesting islands Jaguar KANGAROO known Lemurs Lion living London male Mandarin Duck Monal Monkeys native naturalists nearly North Northern Obaysch obtained occurs Ostrich pair Pea-fowl peculiar Pelican Pheasant pigeons plumage POND Porcupine possessed present prey Python Quagga Red-billed Duck remarkable Rhinoceros Shieldrake singular Society's collection Society's Gardens Society's series South America Southern specimens Stork Striped Hyena Swan tail three species Tragopan Victoria Crowned Pigeon Vulture Wedge-tailed Eagle White Wombat young bird Zebra Zoological Society
Popular passages
Page 54 - Ripon," by which the peculiar requirements of the animal were perfectly accommodated, and the result was, as anticipated, that on the 25th of May, 1850, the first living Hippopotamus, since the tertiary epoch, was landed on English soil. A special train conveyed him to London ; every station yielding up its wondering crowd to look upon the monster as he passed — fruitlessly, for they only saw the Arab keeper, who then attended him night and day, and who, for want of air, was constrained to put...
Page 45 - The unencumbered Eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, probably of despair and honest execration, the latter drops his fish : the Eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to the woods.
Page 7 - I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable...
Page 55 - I had acquired by twelve years' experience in travelling in the interior of Africa, I quitted Cairo on the 15th of April, 1834. After sailing up the Nile as far as Wadi Haifa (the second cataract), I took camels, and proceeded to Debbat, a province of Dongolah ; whence, on the 14th of July, I started for the desert of Kordofan.
Page 21 - In some of the unfrequented portions of the eastern province, to which Europeans rarely resort, and where the pea-fowl are unmolested by the natives, their number is so extraordinary that, regarded as game, it ceases to be " sport " to destroy them ; and their cries at early morning are so tumultuous and incessant as to banish sleep, and amount to an actual inconvenience.
Page 56 - Both in grain and colour it resembles beef, but is far better tasted aud more delicate, possessing a pure game flavour, and exhibiting the most tempting looking layers of fat and lean, the surprising quantity of the former ingredient with which it is interlarded exceeding that of any other game quadruped with which I am acquainted. The venison...
Page 28 - The black jaguar was, they said, not unfrequently found there ; it is the largest and most bloodthirsty variety, with the black spots scarcely distinguishable on its deep brown skin. It lives at the foot of the mountains of Maraguaca and Unturan. One of the Indians of the Durimund tribe then related to us that jaguars are often led, by their love of wandering and by their rapacity, to lose themselves in such impenetrable parts of the forest that they can no longer hunt along the ground, and live...
Page 7 - Let us take a column of one mile in breadth, which is far below the average size, and suppose it passing over us without interruption for three hours, at the rate mentioned above of one mile in the minute.
Page 45 - ... change of seasons; as in a few minutes he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold; and thence descend at will to the torrid or the arctic regions of the earth.
Page 56 - We had to dread the Arabs of Darfour, of which country I saw the first mountain. We were successful in our researches. I obtained three giraffes, smaller than the one I already possessed. Experience suggested to me the means of preserving them. ' Another trial was reserved for me: that of transporting the animals, by bark, from Wadi Haifa to Cairo, Alexandria, and Malta. Providence has enabled me to surmount all difficulties. The most that they suffered was at sea, during their passage, which lasted...