ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



617 



HISTORY OF THE BIRD DEPARTMENT OF THE 

 ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



By C. IVILLAM BEEBE 

 Curator of Birds 



IXTRODL'CTIOX. 



LIKE everything in this world which makes 

 hfe worth hving, a collection of living 

 birds can never reach a point where it 

 may be said to be perfect. But there is a 

 period in the history of a collection of birds in 

 a zoological garden when we may say "enough 

 for the present" ; and that is when all the 

 principal Orders are represented, and when 

 the visitor, completing his survey of the 

 collection, has passed in review birds typical 

 of every continent and ocean, every zone and 

 every walk or flight of avian life. 



To my mind, a collection of living birds 

 achieves its highest ideal when it appeals to 

 the wisest range of humanity. At one time 

 or another I have heard all the following ex- 

 clamations : 



The sympathetic lover of birds : "How happy 

 and contended they all seem ; how clean their 

 quarters ; how fresh their food and water ; 

 how delightful to study them at close range!"' 



JMiladv of fashion: "Never will I wear 

 aigrettes again after seeing them adorning the 

 living form of their rightful owner!" 



The artist : "The grace of movement and 

 perfection of color and form of a bird are 

 my despair!" 



The ornithologist : "Here is opportunity for 

 the solution of a hundred problems : the 

 Bower-bird's play-house — the mystery of song 

 and color and courtship !" 



The foreigner: "Ach, das Heimweh ! Der 

 Nachtigal von der \'aterland !" 



And the child of the slums at first sight of 

 a cageful of brilliant birds stands speechless 

 with delight. 



The success or failure of a collection such 

 as the one under consideration, which is 

 primarily for public exhibition, lies altogether 

 with the visitors. If they are pleased, enter- 

 tained and instructed, the collection is a suc- 

 cess. And this satisfaction lies altogether in 

 the human imagination ; in the cases men- 

 tioned, it is aiifection, sympathy, esthetic ap- 

 preciation, the desire for knowledge, remin- 

 iscence, or childish wonder. And the only 

 true method of achieving success is bv cater- 



ing to all these tastes, putting oneself again 

 and again in the place of the visitor, and ask- 

 ing the question, "If I were he, would I de- 

 light in this cageful of birds ; or in the word- 

 ing of this label?" 



If I have dwelt on the human rather than 

 the avian point of view, it is because the one 

 depends altogether upon the other. None but 

 tlie most depraved could take pleasure in the 

 bloody contests of birds, caged with unsuit- 

 able companions. All but the most hardened 

 would cry out against badlv fed and badly 

 housed feathered creatures, or the keeping of 

 birds under conditions which induced sickness 

 or disease. 



Birds are beings with emotions and traits re- 

 markably like our own, although they are close 

 kin to the lowly reptile, so close, indeed, that 

 they have still to shake off the last traces of 

 scales and fingers. But with all their extreme 

 emotions of love and hate, fear and courage, 

 they are creatures almost entirely of the 

 present. In all my experiences with thous- 

 ands of living birds, I have never known one 

 which did not give every evidence of content 

 and happiness when provided with suitable 

 surroundings, food and companions, adapted 

 to its wild habits of life. When a bird mopes 

 or dashes its life out against its "gilded cage," 

 there is something radically wrong with its 

 owner's knowledge of what conduces to avian 

 happiness in captivity. Birds in captivity 

 should sing and moult, regularly and in due 

 season : they should build nests and rear their 

 voung, and, lastly, when they escape, they 

 should return or linger near their home of 

 plentiful food and unknown foes. When, as 

 a result of all this, thousands of our fellow 

 human beings derive pleasure and knowledge 

 from the collection, then the birds have indeed 

 fulfilled a worthy destiny. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLLECTION. 



Statistics are always an abomination, but 

 there is, unfortunately, no other adequate 

 method of showing the growth of the collec- 

 tion. On November gth, 1899, the Zoological 

 Park was formally opened to the public. At 



