92 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Primate House. — This building came in for the most ex- 

 tensive repairs of any. All of the cages with the exception of 

 that of the lemurs, were very throughly overhauled and painted, 

 and between the large cages new partitions of brick were built. 

 The twenty-four small wall cages were removed from their 

 positions, the wooden backs were taken out, new floors put in, 

 the cages replaced on concrete blocks, and fastened against 

 the walls. 



In all except two instances the heating pipes which ran 

 in a recess back of the cages were taken out, and replaced at 

 the sides. 



Of the large cages along the east side of this building all 

 have been given a very thorough overhauling. The ventilat- 

 ing ducts which were sheathed in wood, and were good harbor- 

 ing places for vermin, were ripped out, and new openings for 

 ventilation were made in the ceilings. The entire wooden 

 sheathing of the cages was removed, the partitions filled in 

 with brick, and covered with a lining of vulcanized fibre in large 

 sheets, all of the joints being covered with strap iron. The 

 marble base along the entire front was removed, and the wooden 

 supports which had been badly decayed at the bottom, were 

 sawed off and placed on sanitary concrete blocks. New iron 

 work was supplied as needed, and the floors repaired. The 

 cages then received three coats of paint. 



The guard rails and nettings in front of the east cages, both 

 inside and out, were removed and replaced by much higher 

 netting of a better design, and covered with sheet metal from 

 the rail down to the floor. This absolutely prevents visitors 

 from feeding any of the apes or monkeys and from throwing 

 matches into their cages. 



The flooring in the entire attic of the building was torn 

 out. Two openings for fresh air ducts were cut through the 

 east foundation walls, and new ducts made and installed. An 

 enclosure of wood and glass was built in the large outside ape 

 cage for the use of the gorilla. 



Lion House. — Here almost the entire water supply system 

 had to be replaced with galvanized iron pipes, as the old pipes 

 had corroded very badly. The old flooring was taken out of 

 nine cages, and replaced with floors of two-inch oak, laid on 

 a concrete foundation; all joints in the oak flooring being care- 

 fully filled with white lead, after which the completed floor was 



