Page:Acclimatisation; its eminent adaptation to Australia.djvu/9

7 A medal worth £60 for the emu, or the rhea or South American Ostrich, on the same conditions as the preceding.

A medal worth £40 was offered for the introduction of any new species of silkworm producing a material that can be spun.

A medal worth £20 for the acclimatisation in Europe or in Algeria of some wax-producing insect, not a bee, and a medal worth £60 for the introduction and acclimatisation of the cinchona or Peruvian hark, producing quinine, in Europe or any of the European colonies. These premiums will give a stimulus to the introduction of valuable products, and must eventually be adopted by the society when formed in New South Wales.

In a paper on acclimatisation in the "Edinburgh Review" for January 1860, the author, enumerating the zoological gardens in Europe, states that they have been made more places of exhibition, than of reproduction and acclimatisation, and then surprises us with the fact, that "practical results have, in fact, been so entirely lost sight of for ages, that the turkey, in the year 1521, the muscovy duck in 1050, the gold pheasant in 1725, and the silver pheasant in 1740, are the only additions to our catalogue of domesticated animals since the Christian era."

Now, in the list of gallinaceous birds published by Prince Charles Bonaparte are enumerated 340 species. Of these we may take 230 or more to be inhabitants of sufficiently temperate regions to admit of their being acclimatised in this colony. They are eatable, prolific, and susceptible of confinement.

Among birds, how many have we domesticated in Australia? First—Varieties of the domestic fowl; Second—The guinea fowl; Third—Geese and ducks; Fourth—The peacock; Fifth—The turkey, the only domesticated product of the New World; and more recently have been introduced the common pheasant—golden and silver, and the ring-necked pheasants.

It has been correctly remarked, that 2000 years have only doubled, even in Europe, the four birds enjoyed by the ancients, and with the imperfect and limited machinery of the Zoological Society of London, the Monal or Impeyan pheasant, the cheer, and three species of kaleege have been brought from the Himalaya. During my recent visit to England, I found them effectually rearing their broods, and in a fair way (with a little effusion of fresh blood among them) of becoming permanently added to the hitherto circumscribed list, as are the golden and silver pheasants and the turkey.

Many persons have asked, what is the use of acclimatisation, or the utility of introducing blackbirds and thrushes? The only