In 1883 the famous chimpanzee, ‘Sally,’ was purchased.
In 1887 the great aviary for flying-birds was opened, and, although the birds were not put in till June, pairs of two species of ibis nested in some trees and reared their young.
In 1889 Mr. Benjamin Misselbrook, who had filled the office of head-keeper for twenty-one years, retired after more than sixty years’ service in the employ of the Society. He died in 1893.
In 1892 the male giraffe, acquired in 1879, died, the last survivor of the old stock. The Gardens were now, for the first time since the arrival of the original stock in 1836, without a representative of this animal. During that period thirty specimens had been exhibited, of which seventeen had been born in the Gardens and thirteen purchased.
The total number of animals in the Gardens on December 31, 1892, was 2,413, showing an increase of 181 over the corresponding period of the previous year.
In 1894 the white-tailed gnu bred for the first time, and a polar bear died after living in the Gardens for about twenty-three years.
In 1895 the new scheme for the drainage of the Society’s grounds, planned in 1894, was brought to a satisfactory conclusion. The first example of the Southern form of giraffe was exhibited. Other important additions were a pair of brindled gnus and a pair of sable antelopes. Seth Sutton, after nearly forty years’ service as keeper, retired on a pension.
In 1896 ‘Jung Pershad,’ the Indian elephant deposited by the Prince of Wales in 1876, died.
In 1897 the new ostrich and crane houses were completed at a total cost of £3,383; the new tortoise house adjoining the reptile house was also finished at a cost of £464. A giraffe, sent as a present to Queen Victoria by the Chief Bathoen of Bechuanaland, died almost as soon as it had been received at the Gardens.
In 1899 the new zebra house was finished at a cost of about £1,100. The Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia presented Queen Victoria with a pair of Grévy’s zebras, which were deposited in this house. Besides these fine animals, the series of equides in the Gardens then comprised one African wild ass, one Somali wild ass, two onagers, one kiang, six Burchell’s zebras, two mountain zebras.