THE LATE MR. A. D. BARTLETT.
THE death of Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the Superintendent of the Zoological Society's menagerie, removes a very popular figure from the "permanent staff " of London public servants, and revives memories going back to the beginning of popular interest in natural history, which preceded in this country the popular revival of art. Mr. Bartlett entered the service of the Zoological Society in 1859. This date coincided with a certain "parting of the ways" between the theory with which the Society had started its career and the practice. which the experience of years had shown to be possible. The Society had almost given up the hope of improving our native cattle by wild crosses or of introducing a new meat. It had sold its breeding-farm at Kingston Hill, not because the experiments in hybridising or in crossing foreign domestic animals with our own had failed, but because the results showed that our animals did not gain by the change of blood. Such entries as that "a female armadillo has produced three young, and hopes are entertained that this animal, so valuable as an article of diet, may be naturalised in this country," had begun to disappear from the Society's Annual Reports. Had the Society desired to continue their experiments on cattle- breeding they could have found no better agent than Mr. Bartlett. In the series of tests which he was permitted to carry out he made the discovery that many of the wild and domestic bovida will interbreed, and that their descendants are fertile. But the energies of the Society were then directed mainly to the increase of the collection of living animals, and to their better maintenance in Regent's Park. The enterprise of the Zoological Society during the ten years after Mr. Bartlett's appointment has never been surpassed in the history of the institution. There were some half-hundred rare and specially interesting creatures which had never been seen in London, or, if seen, had never been properly exhibited either to scientific persons or to the public. These the Society deter- mined to acquire ; and, with good agents working abroad,. and Mr. Bartlett, ever ready with expedients, to take charge- of the creatures when they arrived, the Society met with a great measure of success. In 1862 they acquired the first two birds of paradise, which Mr. Wallace had brought home. These lived under Mr. Bartlett's care, and moulted safely next spring. The Indian Mutiny had stopped a great cargo of Indian pheasants about to be sent over by Lord Canning. But from a previous shipment half a hundred young birds were reared at the Zoo. The Society then set their hearts on acquiring a whale, an African elephant, some sea-lions, specimens of the great anthropoid apes, and on building a new monkey-house. How far this varied programme was suggested by their Superintendent we cannot say, though, Frank Buckland always stated that Mr. Bartlett "found" Lecompte, the seal-tamer, left in a field by the roadside, after he and his pet had been evicted from a travelling. menagerie. In any case, the Society acquired the seal and its owner for £130, plus a fixed salary, and made a very good bargain by the transaction. A white whale from the St. Lawrence River had been kept for two years in the gardens at Boston, U.S.A., and the Society were hopeful that one could be procured for Regent's Park. A porpoise was the nearest approach to the larger cetaceans procurable, but this died after a life of twenty-seven days at the Zoo. In their other ambitions the Society were more successful. They spent £808 on an expedition to India, conducted by Mr. Thompson, the then head-keeper. They had a good native friend in Calcutta, Rajendra Mullick, who had a collection, of his own. With his aid a "job lot" of animals, including two rhinoceroses, was brought over, and one of the latter was exchanged for an African elephant. In the next few years the Society built the new monkey-house, the new elephant-house, and later, the summer cages for the lions. They sent Lecompte to the Falkland Islands to catch more sea-lions, and Mr. Jesse to Abyssinia, whence, however, no living animals were obtained. Mr. Clarence Bartlett was despatched to Surinam to bring home a manatee (which unfortunately died on reaching Southampton), and in 1867 a young walrus was bought for the Gardens. As an instance of the success of the Society as collectors and exhibitors of wild animals at this time, we may mention that it possessed a complete collection of the wild asses of the world, and four different species of rhinoceros. One of these was purchased of Mr. Jamrach for 21,250. It was believed to be a Sumatran rhinoceros, though it came from Chittagong. A few months later a
specimen of the real was species arrived, when it was w found that the first as a great prize, not only a new species, but the only one of its kind then known to naturalists. Ini the early seventies the care of the menagerie was in very corn-
petent hands. Mr. Bartlett was superintendent ; Mr. J. Wolf, the celebrated animal-painter, was employed as " portrait- painter" to the Society ; and a new office, that of " prosector," established "to make anatomical observations of animals which died, and to study animal diseases and animal anatomy," was held by the ingenious and energetic Mr. Alfred Garrod. Frank Buckland was for many years the vates sacer of the Zoo, and more especially of Mr. Bartlett, to whose cleverness and resource in animal management there are constant references in Buckland's popular essays. With the im- proved houses and greater facilities for keeping the animals the sphere of work for the Superintendent was enlarged. Animals which could not previously have bred in the Gardens were introduced, and others which had not bred began to produce young ones in their more congenial surroundings. The larger apes of Asia were brought to the new monkey- house, and the curiosity of the public was roused by rumours of a coming gorilla.
The greatest triumph won by Mr. Bartlett during the early days of his stewardship was a o successful rearing of the young hippopotamus in 1.572. This was not the first of those born in the menagerie, but the ealves born in 1870 and 1871 both died. In the Society's Report for 1872 it was stated that 4‘ arrangements had been made that in the event of a third interesting occurrence of the kind taking place the young one may be removed and brought up by hand." The interesting event did take place, and Mr. Bartlett received the Society's silver medal "as an acknowledgment of the great skill and care shown on this occasion, and of the services he has rendered generally to the Society " The mamma hippopotamus brought up the young one herself, though Mr. Bartlett was fully prepared to bring it up by hand. But this was a credit to our Zoo, for the Dutch hippopotamus, which had a young one, had to hand it over to a nurse.
The series of "historical monkeys" kept at the Zoo began with 'Joe,' a chimpanzee, which the erection of the new monkey-house enabled to be kept alive for some time. Frank Buckland's description of his management by Mr. Bartlett gives an insight into his readiness and resource in dealing with different animals. The big ape needed exercise. This he obtained by being allowed the run of the large monkey. house—instead of remaining in a side room — before the visitors came. As he knew he would be caught and put back into his own room at this hour, the ape used to climb up on to the top of the other monkeys' cages and refuse to come down. As he could not be tempted by food, Mr. Bartlett appealed to his mind by working on what he had noted to be his weak points, curiosity and cowardice. This is Mr. Frank Buckland's account of the daily proceed- ings at this hour:—" Mr. Bartlett went to the keeper, and touching him gently on the shoulder, directed his attention in a mysterious manner to the dark passage underneath the gas-pipe which traverses the house, pretending to point out to Sutton some horrible unknown creature; using an energetic manner, but saying nothing except words to this effect : ` Look out—there he is—there he is.' At the same time the two men would peer into the dark place under the gas-pipe." The monkey used presently to come down to see what the subject of fear and interest was, when Mr. Bartlett and Sutton usedto shout : " He's coming out ! he's coming out ! " and rush away in the direction of Joe's' cage. The monkey would rush for the same place of safety, which happened to be the door of his own house, and sometimes enter it before them. Buckland notes it as curious that the monkey never learnt the deception, but would be taken in by it whenever the time came to finish his morning's airing. These " indirect methods" of animal management, something akin to the "wonderful way" some people have with little children, never failed Mr. Bartlett. To the last he would walk round and see all the creatures as to whose health or temper the keepers had any misgivings, and his suggestions or directions were scarcely ever at fault. Take for example the difficult case of a rhinoceros with a bad "place " on its face, which occurred some two years ago. The question was, Does the abscess come from a bad tooth, or does it only need lancing You cannot ask a rhinocerous if he has the toothache, and though this one was in considerable pain, the causa causans was not obvious. All Mr. Bartlett said was," Give him a new birch broom." The broom was presented, with the bands at the top cut, and the rhinoceros at once ate it up, grinding up the bits with great gusto. " Ah ; you see his teeth are all right," said Mr. Bartlett ; and next day he "lanced " the abscess with a well-sharpened bill-hook. The diagnosis was ingenious, and worthy of the head of the profession, which Mr. Bartl ett undoubtedly was.
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