&0 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
number of snake dens and noted the time of emergence, the 
breeding and the abundance of a number of species, secured 
suitable specimens for the collections, and in the case of danger- 
ous species,—the rattlesnake and the copperhead snake,—made 
note of the possible increase and spread of such types. 
In several instances, where the sides of mountains were 
found infested with rattlesnakes and copperhead snakes, which 
scatter over a considerable area after leaving the various hiber- 
nating shelters, it was thought advisable to warn and advise 
physicians in nearby rural communities and to supply them with 
tubes of anti-venomous serum and pamphlets relating to its use. - 
Head Keeper Toomey and Keeper Taggart made several trips 
into the Ramapo Mountains to obtain frogs, toads and tadpoles 
to feed the collections of reptiles, which for the past two years 
have eclipsed in interest and importance any exhibit in the Reptile 
House since the opening of the Park. During these trips our 
men carried large fish-cans and brought in several thousand tad- 
poles, with which we stocked all of the Park lakes. For a number 
of years, frogs have been almost extinct in the Zoological Park, 
and these tadpoles will go far toward remedying this condition 
and providing easily collected food for the reptiles. With the 
same end in view, the Curator shipped in several hundred leopard 
and green frogs from his vacation trip in the Berkshires. 
As in former years, we are indebted to Mr. Arthur L. Gillam, 
of Flushing, Long Island, for specimens of rattlesnakes and cop- 
perhead snakes for our exhibit of the local reptiles. 
Owing to depleted European zoological gardens, the Curator 
visited several rattlesnake dens in the Berkshires during his 
vacation trip, and shipped in a series of particularly large and 
brightly colored rattlesnakes. Some of these specimens were 
shipped on the Chinese Prince to the Zoological Gardens of Pre- 
toria, South Africa, and others took the place of specimens that 
had been shipped to London. 
In keeping with the splendid series of reptiles exhibited 
during the past year, the Reptile House cages were systematically 
overhauled by working on small sections and hence not greatly 
disturbing the order of the exhibits. The scenic backgrounds, 
painted in the rear of the cages by E. A. Costain, were carefully 
gone over and retouched during the early spring overhauling of 
the building. All of the illuminating fixtures of the Reptile 
