FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 69 



good management, as well as the good will, of Mr. Edgar Beecher 

 Bronson, author of "Through Closed Territory." For the past 

 ten years our efforts to secure a specimen of this rarest of all 

 American bears have been persistent and continuous; but until 

 the present year, unsuccessful. In Quito, Ecuador, Mr. Bron- 

 son obtained for us a lusty young male bear, and through the 

 good offices of the American Consuls at Guayaquil and Panama, 

 Messrs. Herman R. Dietrich and Alban G. Snyder, coupled with 

 the excellent co-operation of the Panama Steamship Company, 

 our prize bear reached us in most perfect condition. 



This species is remarkable for two things : its extraordinary 

 rarity in collections, and the two huge dull-white circles that sur- 

 round the eyes, like a pair of spectacles magnified about six 

 diameters. The general color of the animal is a dense, glossy 

 black, but there are bold white markings on the cheeks and 

 throat. So far as we are aware, this specimen is the first live 

 spectacled bear that has ever been exhibited in North America ; 

 and it is doubtful whether there is to-day even one specimen alive 

 in all Europe. Several tours of the European zoological gardens 

 since 1896, have revealed only one specimen, at Amsterdam, in 

 1902 



BIRTHS DURING YEAR 1910 



The birth rate during 1910, in the mammal collection, has 

 been entirely satisfactory, with the exception that among the 

 deer and bears births have been so numerous as to cause serious 

 embarrassment. In several collections we have been compelled 

 to prevent breeding in order to keep from overcrowding our ac- 

 commodations for animals. 



The list of births for the year is as follows : 



