What matters most, of course, is the effect on Regent's
Park. It is useless to deny that the boast of keeping more wild animals on under forty acres than others on many hundred implies downright cruelty. This week I heard a distinguished civil servant, lately returned from India, describe our Zoo as "the worst in the world." Personally I hold it to be one of the best, because the service is good and sympathetic beyond comparison. But the housing of the bigger animals, of hyena, tiger, wolf, giraffe, vulture or parrot with many others has been miserable owing wholiy to want of space. Our own mammals are wretchedly provided for ; and no sick animal has a chance of the best of all medicines—space, sunshine and a free fresh air. Ruthless reform is now possible. Fewer and healthier animals is the ideal. The present popu- larity of the Zoo is amazing. There are "Bank Holiday crowds" on ordinary days, but a diminution in the number of animals or variety will not diminish the Zoo's popularity. As a popular spectacle it will be improved, especially when the new house for snakes and their kind is completed.
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