Zoo EXPERIMENTS.
The new Zoo at Whipsnade has just proved the means of fulfilling the very first and original idea of the Zoological Society. It was to be a garden of acclimatization, designed at least in part to introduce animals to wild life in England. The very first animal selected for experiment was the guinea- fowl. Though it flourishes well enough, and was encouraged by some game preservers on the strange belief that the guinea-fowl kept the pheasants at home, the bird has never in any sense become wild, and there are probably fewer tame guinea-fowl than there were. A number of guinea-fowl of one variety have just been released and we shall probably see other strays from the charming little sanctuary inside the Whipsnade barrier ; and it is to be hoped that Bedfordshire residents will adapt the sanctuary habit of mind as have the neighbours to other sanctuaries, especially Hiekling. Whips- nade continues to grow in variety of population ; and a sort of enclosure—for the Polar Bears—is now virtually complete. It will illustrate the advantages of this chalk ridge for the purpose of a Zoo.
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