ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



599 



PORTION OF THE COMPLETED BEAR DEINS. 



States Fisheries Hureau. to be the Director. 

 The Society has now managed this institution 

 for seven years, and has so transformed it that 

 it is now the foremost institution of its kind 

 in the world. The collections represent 3.027 

 living creatures, and show, splendid health 

 conditions. The attendance during these years 

 has increased until the year 1909 it reached 

 nearly four million visitors. It is probably 

 the most popular educational institution, public 

 or private, in the world, and it has an attend- 

 ance that is greater than that of all the other 

 public museums of New York together. 



The chief need of the Zoological Society at 

 the present time is not mereU" more members, 

 but an endowment fund, the proceeds of which 

 can be devoted to the general uses and pur- 

 poses of the Society. Until such an endow- 

 ment fund has been provided, the Society is 

 not on safe ground. The relations of the So- 

 ciety with the administrations of various 

 political complexion have been, almost without 

 exception, very cordial, and there is every 

 reason to believe that they will so continue. 

 But it is possible that a political upheaval 

 might occur which would result in strained re- 

 lations between the Society and the City, and 

 the Society would be seriously handicapped 

 for lack of funds, if the Citv withheld, even 

 for a short time, its annual foancia! support. 



Aside from this serious consideration, there 

 remains scientific work which must be provided 

 for in connection with the Park collections. 

 The vast amount of material, in both the 

 Park and the Ac|uarium, is now only partly 

 utilized. The Society proposes to build a 

 Biological Laboratory at an early date, but it 

 will be of little avail unless we have funds 

 sufficient to provide a staff of scientists in 

 connection therewith. As an example, im- 

 portant observations on the intelligence of 

 anthropoid apes, which were begun in our 

 Primates House, were stopped last year be- 

 cause we did not have the money necessarv to 

 continue them. Lack of funds prevented simi- 

 lar work at the Aquarium, where the Director 

 made some most interesting studies on the 

 color changes of fishes : but we were without 

 funtls sufficient to publish a series of colored 

 plates showing the extraordinary phenomena 

 connected therewith. 



Manv other incidents might be quoted show- 

 ing the need of adequate and permanent 

 sources of income. The Executive Committee 

 have made many sacrifices, but of course, there 

 are limits to the resources of individuals, and 

 work of this kind nnist be put on a permanent 

 and broad basis. 



The officers of the Society, especially the 

 Director of the Park and the Secretarv have 



