TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 53 



course work. It was desired that the lectures should be based 

 upon pictures of living animals which afterward might be found 

 in the collections. 



The need for these lectures seemed to be so imperative it was 

 decided that, despite the lack of anything even remotely resembling 

 a lecture hall, an effort must be made by the Park officers to meet 

 the demand. Forthwith, the large rustic Shelter Pavilion, near 

 the Wolf Dens, was converted into a practicable lecture hall. 

 By surrounding the interior with heavy black curtains, erecting a 

 platform and purchasing the necessary apparatus, illustrated lec- 

 tures were made possible, and the courses began on April 23. 



Three courses were delivered, to a total of about 3,500 pupils of 

 Grade 5 A, coming from thirty-eight schools of Bronx Borough. 

 About 7,000 pupils of that grade applied for permission to attend 

 the lectures, but it was impossible to accommodate more than 

 one-half that number. Inasmuch as these lectures occupied 

 regular school time, and were equivalent to so much classroom 

 work, it was impossible to increase the number of lectures with- 

 out interfering with other regular studies. 



The first course of lectures was delivered by the Director of 

 the Zoological Park, under the title of "An Introduction to the 

 Study of Animals." These lectures related wholly to mammals. 

 Mr. C. Wiliam Beebe, Curator of Birds, followed with a course 

 entitled "An Introduction to the Study of Birds," and Curator 

 Ditmars gave as the final course "An Introduction to the Study 

 of Reptiles." 



Each lecture was followed by a "demonstration." This means 

 that the three hundred and fifty to four hundred pupils in at- 

 tendance were by their teachers divided into groups of from 

 forty to fifty, and with a guide to point out the route, each group 

 was taken separately over a course that had been laid out by the 

 lecturer. On reaching each group of living examples, a teacher, 

 who had been specially instructed and stationed there, pointed out 

 the living animals referred to in the lecture and stated certain 

 facts regarding them. 



All this involved a great deal of work on the part of the 

 teachers. Each lecture required the presence and active co- 

 operation of about twenty teachers, one-half of them to bring 

 pupils to the Park and conduct them afterward, the others to 

 demonstrate. Necessarily the demonstrators required to be in- 

 structed in advance by the lecturers. To aid them the Teachers' 

 Association printed a pamphlet which contained a full syllabus 

 of each lecture. 



