ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



325 



forest background, the acres of oak, maple, and 

 cedar that hide the skyHne, the sheen of thirty 

 acres of water dotted with wild fowl, some of 

 which, free of the air, fly to and fro and lend 

 yet more natural effect to the scene. 



The permanent buildings will in all proba- 

 bility be enlarged until they are stupendous. 

 Nothing less than record houses for the lions, 

 snakes, and monkeys will ultimately satisfy 

 New York, and it is too much to hope that the 

 architectural programme of an institution so 

 richly endowed will escape infection by the sky- 

 scraping microbe. Yet the admirers of Bronx 

 will pray that outdoor space may keep first 

 place in its ambitions. It is to the open-air 

 features of this remarkable collection that the 

 visitor from Europe turns with envious eye. 

 Where much is excellent, praise in detail is 

 laborious, but there are notes of individuality 

 that can not be ignored in eulogy of the whole. 

 Right at the entrance a buffalo range, dotted 

 here and there with the shaggy remnants of a 

 herd, strikes the note of the prairies, vastness, 

 desolation, above all a reminder of the extinc- 

 tion of a fine type that Mr. Roosevelt has 

 likened to the destruction of all the works of a 

 classic author. From almost any point of view 

 the huge Flying Cage is sure to catch the 

 curious eye ; and this mammoth aviary, with its 

 hundred feet of water, appreciated by the pon- 

 derous pelican and rosy flamingo, and its trio 

 of trees for the comfort of smaller perching 

 fowl, is an extraordinary advance on even the 

 flying cages of our own and other gardens. 

 Another ideal of the open life for these hon- 

 ored captives is found in the grassy ranges, a 

 thousand feet of them, partly overgrown with 

 oak and cedar, on which the restless sheep and 

 deer of America and other continents can, after 

 their fashion, wander as they graze. Lastly, 

 the playground of the bears, a group in which 

 America is more blest, or otherwise, than all 

 the rest of the world, affords those massive yet 

 delicate brutes unequaled opportunities of in- 

 dulging in healthful frolic in the public eye. 



The view that the permanent buildings will 

 eventually be permitted to dwarf the open 

 spaces is, it must be admitted, not based on 

 their present dimensions. So far, they are 

 agreeably subordinated to the outdoor accom- 

 modation. The lion house, though it will, when 

 completed, have cost no less a sum than £30.- 

 000. can not, certainly, be regarded as superior 

 to that at Regent's Park. Indeed, it is question- 

 able whether on the whole it makes even so 

 solid an impression. Its one advance on the 

 lion houses of Europe is the flexible wire net- 

 ting used in place of rigid bars, with a result at 



once pleasing to the eye and comfortable to the 

 captive animals, which are thus unable to in- 

 jure themselves during the paroxysms of rage 

 that often accompany their arrival in new quar- 

 ters. An annex of the Bronx lion house in 

 the form of a well-lighted studio, with a special 

 cage to enable painters and sculptors to work 

 from the living model, marks an advance in a 

 different but not less important direction ; but 

 this innovation, though welcome on other 

 grounds, does not call for notice in a criticism 

 concerned only with the park as an animal 

 home. If the Bronx lion house is in no way 

 superior to our own. the reptile house is, to my 

 way of thinking, inferior, although in certain 

 accessible groups, notably the rattlesnakes, the 

 collection is more representative, and the 

 Florida alligators grow rapidly as the result 

 of direct sunlight on the tanks. The monkey 

 house is chiefly notable for the open-air system 

 provided, as the result of which it is claimed 

 that death from phthisis, so fatal in the ma- 

 jority of European monkey houses, is all but 

 unknown. Other epidemics at Bronx are in- 

 frequent, though a strange and mysterious mal- 

 adv carried oil all but one of the Californian 

 sea-lions during a recent mild winter, but did 

 not affect another of the herd that had been 

 sent to the Aquarium, another admirable in- 

 stitution under the control of the same society 

 and most ably conducted by Mr. C. H. Town- 

 send. On first reaching the Aquarium the sea- 

 lion barked night and day until the Director, 

 after a surfeit of sleepless nights, ordered 

 extra rations of fish until, as he expressively 

 put it, the brute "quit barking or burst." The 

 desired silence followed, but ever since the ani- 

 mal has moved unceasingly around its tank, 

 which the Director attributes to permanently 

 heated blood as the result of its orgy. 



The memories of Bronx are of mingled envy 

 and contentment. Animal lovers should be 

 free from small jealousy, and as one who has 

 long taken deep interest in our own Zoological 

 Gardens, I know no rancor over the greater 

 achievements of New York. Nay, if their 

 park is broader, their library is insignificant, 

 and there is not one of their officials who does 

 not speak with reverence of the splendid litera- 

 ture published by the London society. Their 

 own publications, including the guide, which so 

 keen a sportsman as Mr. Hornaday has been 

 able to make more interesting than the majority 

 of such books, and periodical bulletins copiously 

 illustrated with photographs from the camera 

 of ]\Ir. Sanborn, are wholly popular in their 

 conception. The good work in the direction of 

 investigating disease in captive animals which 



