52 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
months’ actual use. Since the opening of the Park, not one death 
of first-class importance has occurred in this department. The 
largest specimen lost was a rock python nine feet in length, all 
others having been small and unimportant. Excepting that spec- 
imen, all the large pythons, anacondas, and boas are in fine con- 
dition. 
All things considered, the Alligator Pool is perhaps the most 
satisfactory single feature in the Reptile House. All the alli- 
gators have grown with astonishing rapidity, and are in perfect 
health. The largest specimen measured in September, 1899, 
twelve feet one inch. In January, 1901, it measured twelve feet 
eleven and one-half inches, a gain of nearly a foot. Two large 
abscesses which it developed on its front feet from rubbing them 
against the sides of the pool were operated upon, and in a short 
time were permanently cured. 
During the past year, Assistant Curator Ditmars developed a 
system of compulsory feeding of large serpents, which has pro- 
duced very valuable results. Heretofore, though not in our col- 
lection, it has frequently occurred that large pythons and boas 
which were unwilling to take food voluntarily have been permit- 
ted to die by slow starvation. Mr. Ditmars prepares a string of 
dead rabbits, pigeons, or other food animals, and with the aid of 
several keepers, and the exercise of much skill and judgment, 
forces the whole collection down the serpent’s throat. If the 
food is persistently disgorged, it is immediately re-introduced. 
Strange to say, food thus thrust by force into a serpent is properly 
digested, and assimilation appears to be as perfect as when it is 
brought about by more natural processes. 
Notwithstanding the number of poisonous serpents in the col- 
lection, and the frequency with which their cages are opened, 
thus far none of the members of the working force of the Reptile 
Department have been bitten. 
The needs of the public required the temporary use of the Tor- 
toise House as a lunch-room, but for which that feature would 
long ere this have been fully developed. At present, the tortoises 
are much scattered, and the group is devoid of character. 
The most important additions to the collections of the Reptile 
Department consisted of two very large regal pythons, twenty- 
seven feet four inches and twenty-five feet long respectively, and 
two fine specimens of the king cobra, all imported direct from 
