32 NEW: SV ORK ZOOLOGICAL (S@CIEIY 
its individual membership, to make renewed efforts for the 1m- 
periled natural life, the loss of which to the country will be little 
short of a national calamity. That this is not an overstatement 
is proved by the universal protest against the destruction of the 
Bison, and by the truly national movement and sentiment to pre- 
serve this noble animal. 
Zoological Research.—This is the third great object to which 
the energies of the Society should especially be devoted. Already 
an enviable reputation has been made through the splendid publi- 
cations in natural history of Dr. William T. Hornaday, Mr. Madi- 
son Grant, Mr. C. William Beebe, Mr. R. L. Ditmars and Mr. 
Charles H. Townsend. These publications have been based 
partly on the collections brought together by the Society in the 
Park and Aquarium, partly as the result of travel, and partly as 
the result of remarkable experiments carried on in the Park 
itself. Of the latter, the experiments of Mr. C. William Beebe on 
the plumage of birds, as published in Zoologica, our scientific 
periodical, have attracted world wide attention. A number of 
persons have thereby become interested in the future work of the 
Society, and have contributed generous sums to carry on this 
work. 
A distinct line of investigation of an especially humane charac- 
ter is that which the Society has been conducting from the very 
first on the life, health and happiness of its captive animals of all 
kinds. These investigations are now being assembled in two 
important volumes, which will be published as part of the celebra- 
tion of the Decennial of the Society, from the Zoological Park 
and the Aquarium respectively. 
The members of the Society are individually and collectively 
invited to aid in these great movements, which will not in anv 
way interfere with, but rather will tend to increase the beauty 
and attractiveness as well as permanence of the Zoological Park 
itself, which, it is always to be remembered, is the first object 
for which the Society was formed. The buildings of the Park 
must be extended, the collections must be made more comprehen- 
sive, the natural beauties of the Park must be preserved, the edu- 
cational value of the collections to the people of the City of New 
York must be constantly kept in mind. 
With the fulfilment of these ideals, which have been before us 
from the beginning, and with the establishment of an Endowment 
Fund, the Society will begin its second decennial with confidence 
in another decade of still greater usefulness. 
During the past year the Zoological Park and the Aquarium 
have grown in popularity with the public, as is proved by ‘the 
