ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



389 



dence reposed in them by the city authorities, 

 the results now visible in the Park have been 

 accomplished in nine years, and in two years 

 more this great task will be finished, accord- 

 ing to the requirements of the "Final Plan." 



Because of the Zoological Society's satis- 

 factory business methods in connection with 

 the Zoological Park, the City Department of 

 Parks, in 1902, requested the Society to as- 

 sume control of the New York Aquarium, 

 and place it upon a permanent scientific basis. 

 Its growth and its character to-day are testi- 

 monials to the wisdom of the action of the 

 Park Department. 



In the cause of "Game Protection." which 

 is a short term comprehending all efforts for 

 the preservation of wild life, the Zoological 

 Society has put forth an amount of effort, and 

 expended money far beyond anything of the 

 kind ever accomplished by any similar organ- 

 ization so far as we are aware. The first 

 work of the Society in this field consisted of 

 an inquiry by Dr. Hornaday. in 1898, into 

 the decrease in bird life throughout the United 

 States during the previous fifteen years. Sec- 

 retarv Grant was largely instrumental in the 

 passage of the Alaskan Game Law and the 

 Newfoundland Game Law, and in defeating 

 the attempted repeal of the Alaskan Game 

 Law. ^Ir. G. O. Shields, for two years the 

 Society's Special Agent for Game Protection, 

 completely stopped the wholesale slaughter of 

 song birds for food that was going on in the 

 nortlicrn portion of Nczv York City, by Italian 

 laborers. Dr. Hornaday proposed to the 

 Zoological Society and the L'nited States Gov- 

 ernment the plan that now is being carried 

 into effect for the establishment of a national 

 herd of American Bison in a specially equipped 

 range on the Wichita Forest and Game Re- 

 serve, in Oklahoma. During the spring of 

 1907 Professor F. W. Hooper and Dr. Horn- 

 aday successfully advocated before the New 

 York Legislature the American Bison So- 

 ciety's bill for the establishment of a state 

 herd of Bison in the Adirondacks. In 1901 

 Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes conveyed to the 

 Zoological Society a fund of $3,000 — the in- 

 terest of which is to be used perpetually for 

 the protection of birds. Aside from this, the 

 Society, and its members individually, have 

 jointly expended in the cause of game pro- 

 tection, through the Society's officers, during 

 the past five years, at least $6,000. 



INVESTIGATIONS. 



Owing to heavy burdens involved in the 

 creation of the Zoological Park, and in taking 



an active part in the preservation of our wild 

 fauna, the Zoological Society has just be- 

 gun its serious and extensive work in the 

 field of scientific investigation, save in its 

 medical department. In that field, the studies 

 of Dr. Blair and Dr. Brooks have been of 

 great value to the Society and to the world 

 of comparative medicine and surgery as a 

 whole. 



Curator Beebe has by a series of experi- 

 ments established the fact that through vm- 

 usual humidity of the atmosphere, the plum- 

 age of a bird can be completely changed in 

 color to very dark hues, during the short 

 period of three years and two successive 

 moults. These will be published in Zoologia, 

 the new scientific periodical of the Society. 



In the Annual Report and Bulletin of the 

 Society there have been published numerous 

 scientific papers, and others of popular natural 

 history, of special interest to the members of 

 the Society. 



THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF HEADS AND 

 HORNS. 



In December, 1906. Messrs. Grant and 

 Hornaday proposed that the sportsmen of 

 America should form a great National Col- 

 lection of Heads and Horns, provided the 

 Zoological Society would accept the owner- 

 ship of it, and permanently maintain and 

 exhibit it in the Zoological Park. This offer 

 was immediately accepted, and the collection 

 is now rapidly being formed. Already gifts 

 have been received having an aggregate value 

 of about $11,500. 



Hon. Levi P. Morton is President of the 

 Zoological Society, Professor Henry Fairfield 

 Osborn is First Vice-President, and Mr. 

 Charles T. Barney is Chairman of the Exe- 

 cutive Committee. 



The total sum contributed by private gener- 

 osity, through the New York Zoological So- 

 ciety, is now about $460,000, not counting 

 miscellaneous gifts of animals, the total value 

 of which never has been computed. 



OTHER SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES OF 

 NEW YORK. 



THE Xczo York Academy of Seiences is 

 fourth in age among American scientific 

 societies, having been organized in 1 817 as 

 the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. 

 Its Active Members number about 500. It also 

 has several hundred Associate Members in- 

 cluding the membership of the following af- 



