shufeldt] 



HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS 



303 



For many years I have, from time to time, paid very consider- 

 able attention to the care of animals in zoological gardens, and I 

 am convinced that many of the deprivations mentioned above 

 can, in some instances, either be very much mitigated or done away 

 with entirely. Had all animals the power of speech, it would be 

 most interesting to hear what some of them would have to say in 

 regard to these matters; but a few of these conditions are quite 

 beyond the pale of remedy. It is, for example, out of the ques- 

 tion to gratify the instinct of certain mammals or birds to herd or 



White Pelicans 



to flock; but sometimes it is possible, as one may see in several 

 instances in the National Zoological Park at Washington, to grat- 

 ify this yearning in birds, as shown in one of my photographs here, 

 where upwards of a dozen beautiful, white pelicans are enjoying 

 themselves on the shore of a natural pond. Some of the geese 

 and other water fowl in that Park are given similar advantages, 

 while it would be impossible to undertake such a scheme in the 

 case of many of our mammals. 



In very extensive parks, there is no reason, when such insti- 

 tutions are sufficiently strong financially, why they should not 

 give certain animals all the room and natural environment they 



