The animals in the Gardens, although reduced in number, are more valuable and interesting than when their number was higher. The mission of the Society's head-keeper, to collect rare animals for the Menagerie, has been very profitable. The additional houses from time to time, are very expensive: the new monkey house, fittings, and work cost 4,842l.; and in 1864, the sum of 6,604l. was laid out in permanent additions to the establishment.
Very rare, and consequently expensive, animals are generally purchased. Thus, the first Rhinoceros cost 1,000l.; the four Giraffes, 700l., and their carriage an additional 700l. The Elephant and calf were bought in 1851 for 500l.; and the Hippopotamus, although a gift, was not brought home and housed at less than 1,000l.—a sum which he more than realised in the famous Exhibition season, when the receipts were 10,000l. above the previous year. The Lion Albert was purchased for 140l.; a tiger, in 1852, for 200l. The value of some of the smaller birds will appear, however, more startling: thus, the pair of black-necked Swans were purchased for 80l.; a pair of crowned Pigeons and two Maleos, 60l.; a pair of Victoria Pigeons, 35l.; four Mandarin Ducks, 70l. Most of these rare birds (now in the great aviary) came from the Knowsley collection, at the sale of which, in 1851, purchases were made to the extent of 985l. It would be impossible from these prices, however, to judge of the present value of the animals. Take the Rhinoceros, for example: the first specimen cost 1,000l.; the second, quite as fine a brute, only 350l. Lions range again from 40l. to 180l., and Tigers from 40l. to 200l. The ignorance displayed by some persons as to the value of well-known objects is something marvellous. —A sea-captain demanded 600l. for a pair of Pythons, and at last took 40l.! An American offered the Society a Grisly Bear for 2,000l., to be delivered in the United States; and, more laughable still, a moribund Walrus, which had been fed for nine weeks on salt pork and meal, was offered for the trifling sum of 700l.!
There is a strange notion that the Zoological Society has proposed a large reward for a "Tortoiseshell Tom-cat," and one was accordingly offered to the Society for 250l.! But male Tortoiseshell Cats may be had in many quarters. [4]
The Surrey Zoological Gardens were established in 1831. Thither Cross removed his menagerie from the King's Mews, where it had been transferred from Exeter Change. At Walworth a glazed circular building, 100 feet in diameter, was built for the cages of the carnivorous animals (Lions, Tigers, Leopards, &c.); and other houses for Mammalia, Birds, &c. Here, in 1834, was first exhibited a young Indian one-horned Rhinoceros, for which Cross paid 800l. It was the only specimen brought to England for twenty years. In 1836 were added three Giraffes, one fifteen feet high. The menagerie was dispersed in 1856. The menagerie at Exeter Change was a poor collection, though the admission-charge was, at one period, half-a-crown!
The collections of animals exhibited at fairs have added little to Zoological information; but we may mention that Wombwell, one of the most noted of the showfolk, bought a pair of the first Boa Constrictors imported into England: for these he paid 75l., and in three weeks realised considerably more than that sum by their exhibition. At the time of his death, in 1850, Wombwell was possessed of three huge menageries, the cost of maintaining which averaged at least 35l. per day; and he used to estimate that, from mortality and disease, he had lost, from first to last, from 12,000l. to 15,000l.
Our object in the following succession of sketches of the habits and eccentricities of the more striking animals, and their principal claims upon our attention, is to present, in narrative, their leading characteristics, and thus to secure a willing audience from old and young.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1 Kings iv. 10.
[2] "Athenæum."
[3] Journal of Mr. E. Browne, son of Sir Thomas Browne.