FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 47 
moment, the State Game Commissioners refused to grant a permit 
for the exportation of the animals. The Governor of Maine was 
appealed to, but quite in vain. The Zoological Society has paid 
for the construction of the useless shipping cages, and lost the 
beavers. This action of the Game Commissioners was very un- 
expected. The authorities of Minnesota, Colorado, Texas, Mon- 
tana, and British Columbia and Newfoundland have willingly 
and promptly granted to the Society permits to receive and ex- 
port protected animals. 
At last we are in receipt of information that one of our resident 
collectors has secured ten beavers for the Zoological Park, that 
the animals are feeding properly, and very soon will be shipped 
to New York.* In November two fine otters were purchased, 
and it is hoped that the Society’s vexations on account of these 
two species of animals are about at an end. 
During the year, the herd of buffaloes was increased by the 
addition of two fine adult male animals, received by gift from 
Hon. William C. Whitney, two calves born, and three adult cows 
received on deposit for two years from David J. Gardiner, 
these additions bringing the total number of individuals in the 
herd up to fourteen. Mr. Charles T. Barney presented two fine 
moose, from Manitoba, and Mr. Austin Corbin, for the Blue 
Mountain Forest Association, presented a herd of eight Virginia 
deer, and a wild boar. Mr. William Rockefeller presented four 
fine specimens of typical fallow deer, and a pair of European red 
deer, and the Duke of Bedford donated a large specimen of the 
equine deer of the East Indies, and two sambar deer. 
The month of August produced a discouraging degree of mor- 
tality amongst the large ruminant animals from the plains and 
mountains of the West. The difficulties involved in acclimatiz- 
ing moose, antelope, caribou, mule deer and Columbian black- 
tailed deer anywhere on the Atlantic coast, or in the Mississippi 
Valley has from the first been fully recognized. The great 
majority of the efforts that have been made to rear these species 
to maturity, and induce them to breed anywhere east of the great 
plains, have resulted in failure and disappointment. Notwith- 
standing this, the Zoological Society long ago determined to 
* Two of these specimens have been forwarded. They arrived at the Park in 
good condition, and in April were liberated in the Beaver Pond, where they im- 
mediately made themselves at home. 
