REPORT OF THE 

 DIRECTOR OF THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS 



DURING the year 1910 the Zoological Park made its usual 

 progress, both in collections and permanent improvements. 

 The collections were greatly strengthened all along the line, the 

 Administration Building and one other were completed, the an- 

 noying water situation on Bronx Lake was corrected by impor- 

 tant new work upon the dam, and two important contracts for 

 new animal installations were awarded. 



Fortunately, the progress of the Park was free from calami- 

 ties, and the death losses in the collections were never before so 

 small. 



Both to the Zoological Society and the public at large, the 

 two events of 1910 of the greatest importance were the comple- 

 tion and occupancy of the Administration Building and the tem- 

 porary installation therein of the National Collection of Heads 

 and Horns. 



HEADS AND HORNS 



In view of the alarmingly rapid disappearance of wild 

 life, the people of to-day little realize the importance, to the 

 Americans of one hundred years hence, of the beginning of a 

 serious national effort to bring together, before it is too late, a 

 large collection of notably fine heads and horns to represent the 

 most interesting species of animals now living. It is fit and 

 proper that New York City should possess, and exhibit on a sci- 

 entific basis to the world at large, one of the world's finest col- 

 lections of big-game trophies. Those who are familiar with the 

 quality of the 695 specimens that have been acquired during the 

 short space of three years can form a fairly correct estimate of 

 the result that fifty years of similar effort will produce. Al- 

 though the collection of to-day is highly interesting and scien- 

 tifically valuable, its chief value lies in the fact that it represents 

 a serious, well-organized foundation upon which the sportsmen 

 of America and their friends, both at home and abroad, can and 

 will build up a collection that presently will become of great im- 

 portance and value to the world. 



In all comparisons of horns and antlers, it is both right and 

 necessary that the tape line should play an important part in 

 determining records and fixing comparative values. In one 



