PREFACE.

HE object of this book is to enable the visitor to make an intelligent tour of our Zoological Gardens. Preliminary to a consideration of the various departments, a short history of the Gardens is given and a few observations on Zoology are presented. The description of the Gardens, as now constituted, then follows, taking up each house and enclosure separately. This method, it is believed, is less confusing to the visitor than an attempt to describe the specimens under a Zoological outline. The reason for this is that it is often necessary, for economic or other prudential reasons, to place specimens in one department that naturally belong to another. Thus departments are constantly overlapping and do not conform to the departments of an outline of Zoology. But the student of Zoology will be in no danger of losing his way on this account. This Guide locates the specimens in the various buildings and enclosures, and in the pursuit of the systematic study of Zoology the student can go from department to department- Zoological textbook or field book in hand—and easily find that for which he seeks, classifying his observations as he goes.

Of course, in a book like this, it is not possible to be minutely descriptive, and so the author has aimed to tell as simply as possible what the attractions of the Gardens are and where they may be found, and gives a description, on a scientific basis, of the character and habits of many animals, birds and reptiles, with the hope that something may be found within the covers of the volume that will inspire more than one visitor to take up the careful study of Zoology—a branch of science one of the most useful because its study trains to habits of close observation and brings us "near to nature's heart."