EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 75 



venience is called the Yak Shelter. It is not a building, and is 

 quite unobtrusive, but its low walls and ample but invisible 

 roof provides comfortable shelter for a really large collection of 

 animals. Besides the Yak herd, already started, the shelter will 

 accommodate a herd of elands, or of zebras, a group of kanga- 

 roos provided with large grassy enclosures, and various emus 

 and cassowaries. In any event, when visitors reach the top of 

 the steps above the West Farms entrance and look ahead, they 

 will behold so many strange animals that they will feel that they 

 have fully arrived in the Zoological Park. 



On the ground the Yak Shelter is sixty feet square, it con- 

 tains twelve comfortable apartments, and eight of them can be 

 heated to a moderate degree. The shelter was erected wholly 

 by our Zoological Park force, and its cost was $7,718. It is 

 safe to predict that this odd and heterogeneous collection will 

 be regarded by visitors as a very interesting feature. 



The hospital now provided for, and to be erected immediate- 

 ly, is the central and most important feature of a small group 

 of sanitary buildings, or sheds, that for months past have re- 

 peatedly and urgently been asked for. The small, cheap and 

 wholly temporary building that for ten years has been used 

 as a hospital is falling down from decay, and must at once be 

 replaced. A small bond issue of $30,000 for the entire plant 

 involved in caring for sick and dead animals was refused, but 

 finally a small unexpended balance was saved from the Zebra 

 House Yards, and made available for the hospital building, 

 which may be sufficient to construct the walls, roof and floor. 



The new hospital will be located in the Service Yard, on 

 the site of the old one. This building will furnish detention 

 wards for contagious cases, and will accommodate sick animals 

 of all kinds save the largest ones. 



DEPARTMENT OF MAMMALS. 

 W. T. Hornaday, Curator; Raymond L. Ditmars, Assistant Curator. 



No important changes in the general status of the collec- 

 tions have occurred during the past year. There have been 

 several important losses by death, but in most cases new ex- 

 amples of the respective species involved have been soon pur- 

 chased to fill the gaps. The most important animals to die were 

 the two Nubian giraffes, which were quartered in the Antelope 

 House. These animals had been on exhibition for a period of 



