LITTLE DEER.
One the most charming additions to the Regent's Park
Zoo is of the little Pudu deer, which is rather less large than a fox. Now another deer, the Muntjaek, which is not much bigger than a fox, is steadily spreading its range about England, from its birthplace in Woburn Park. If we are to admit naturalization at all it is safer to enlarge surh mammals, which are easily kept within limits, than such evasive and prolific breeders as the little owl or grey squirrel. When the Red Deer became a forester's and farmer's menace in New Zealand the cure was almost immediate. But a permit should—as it seems to me—be necessary for the letting loose of any alien. On the Continent, especially Austria and its confines, the Musk-rat—one of the most valuable of fur-bearing animals—has proved a danger to canals and other waterworks owing to its genius for burrowing. You never can tell—with plant, insect, mammal or bird— how they will react to new conditions and no one should be allowed to make " the vile experiment " on his own sole authority, even if he possess the knowledge of a Lord Lilford or a Duke or Duchess of Bedford.
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