1897] PROPOSED ZOOLOGICAL PARK OF NEW YORK 37 



to make acquaintance with this subject. Five of the gardens visited, 

 namely, those of London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Hamburg and 

 Berlin, are classed by Mr Hornaday as being of ' first rank,' and 

 receive due praise for their success in various particulars. Warm 

 thanks are also offered to the officials of these and the other 

 gardens for the great help they have afforded to Mr Hornaday 

 in his investigations. The principal criticism made upon these 

 gardens by Mr Hornaday is that of want of space, many of them 

 being so overcrowded with buildings and yards, that little attempt 

 can be made to imitate the natural haunts of the creatures exhibited 

 in them. 



In European gardens, Mr Hornaday truly observes, "the large 

 game — animals, such as the various species of deer, elk, bison, 

 buffaloes, etc., are kept in small pens, because ample park-space is 

 not available. Living trees are never utilized as homes for arboreal 

 mammals. Ledges of natural rock are entirely absent, but hills of 

 artificial rock, and small masses of stone, are quite common. With 

 the exception of the great ' flying ' cages of London, Eotterdam and 

 Paris, the homes provided for birds are always of the most conven- 

 tional and artificial character. The ' flying ' cages, however, just 

 mentioned are so very large, and contain so much of nature in the 

 form of living trees, shrubs, plants and water, that the birds within 

 them seem to be as much at home as if they were really in a state 

 of nature, in a leafy wilderness." 



We shall see presently that in the proposed new garden in New 

 York, it has been wisely arranged that much more ample space shall 

 be provided than is to be found in the existing establishments in the 

 Old World. 



Mr Hornaday also speaks of the attempts made in some of the 

 European gardens to provide oriental buildings for oriental animals, 

 and buildings of an elaborate architectural design. It is his 

 opinion, and we quite agree with him, that conformity to a plain 

 and uniform style of architecture is more desirable in such matters 

 than a " succession of startling contrasts." 



But although we have derived much instruction from Mr 

 Hornaday's Beport, and from the appositeness of some of his remarks, 

 it is time now to turn to what our enterprising American friends 

 propose to do in order to found in New York a Zoological Garden, 

 certainly better provided with space, and, if possible, better ordered 

 in every other respect than those of Europe. In selecting for the site 

 of the proposed new garden South Bronx Park, a tract of "261 acres of 

 forest, meadow-land, and water," in the northern environs of the 

 city, in what is called the "annexed district," the Executive Council 

 appear to have made a wise choice. As will be seen by the bird's-eye 

 view of the surface of this piece of ground, taken from a relief model 



