ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 785 



creases in size ; and thus excellent ventilation is secured for all 

 time. 



There are several highly important elements which should be 

 paramount in the administration of the affairs of such an institu- 

 tion in order to insure its highest success and most healthy growth 

 and usefulness. Chief among these is the matter of choice of the 

 persons selected to constitute the staff of such a zoological gar- 

 den as we have in mind. Next are the methods of confining and 

 exhibiting the collection of animals of the place ; the regulations 

 controlling its sanitation and keeping; and provision of those 

 steps which lead to the public and special workers deriving the 

 greatest amount of benefit from it, in a purely educational point 

 of view, incorporating here the subservience of Science in her 

 diverse ends and means. 



In the spring of this year (1888), the Zoological Society of 

 London, in addition to its regular staff of officers, employed the 

 following persons : one superintendent, one assistant superintend- 

 ent, one head keeper, six keepers (first class), ten keepers (second 

 class), eight keepers (third class), three money-takers, one store- 

 keeper, one cook, one office-clerk, one prosector's assistant, one head 

 gardener, nineteen helpers in the menagerie, ten garden laborers, 

 seven artisans, two painters, six laborers, one butcher, two fire- 

 men, two night watchmen, and one time-keeper — making a whole 

 force of about eighty-five people, the duties of whom are suffi- 

 ciently suggested by their designations. It is hardly necessary to 

 say that the gentlemen composing the staff of officers should be 

 selected not only for their executive ability in the departments 

 they severally fill, but likewise for their distinction in some 

 branch of zoological science, and more especially vertebrate zo- 

 ology. Of that part of the staff which has just been enumerated 

 above, especial regard should be paid to the selection of the keep- 

 ers, who should be men fond of animals and their care, gentle 

 and patient, and otherwise particularly fitted for their employ- 

 ment. 



A great deal depends upon the various methods adopted of ex- 

 hibiting the different mammals, birds, and reptiles in the collec- 

 tion, not only so far as the comfort of these is concerned, but 

 the amount of instruction and benefit we derive from the several 

 plans emj)loyed. For instance, it would hardly be considered 

 advisable to keep specimens of the Rocky Mountain goat {Ma- 

 zama) within an inclosure wherein the ground was a dead 

 level, and specimens of the prong-horn antelope (Antilocapra) in 

 another inclosure wherein a rocky hillock of some considerable 

 dimensions might exist : for, in the first instance, the animal would 

 not only be unhappy in his quarters, but would be made incapable 

 of exhibiting a number of his natural traits ; while a mass of rocks 



VOL. XXXIV.— 50 



