SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. (a) 
and dilapidated dwellings which stood in the northeastern portion 
of the Zoological Park. These buildings were very old, and had 
fallen into so serious a state of disrepair that it was out of the 
question for them to be longer occupied as residences. With but 
one exception they were serious disfigurements to the Park 
grounds, and with the concurrence of the Commissioner of Parks 
for the Borough of the Bronx and his Chief Engineer, these build- 
ings were removed and their sites properly covered with top-soil, 
graded, and set in grass. The improvement thus made was par- 
ticularly noticeable at the intersection of the Zoological Park 
boundary with the Boston Road, where the appearance of the 
Park was very greatly improved. 
Breeding House.—The great number of live animals required 
for food purposes in the Park—particularly by the reptiles—and 
the success of the nursery force in breeding and rearing of rabbits, 
guinea-pigs, chickens, pigeons, mice, and rats, pointed out the 
advisability of increasing the facilities of the Nursery for the 
breeding and rearing of such animals. With the concurrence of 
the Commissioner of Parks, the Zoological Park force erected at 
the Nursery a wooden building 16 x 20 feet, and 2% stories in 
height, with a good basement, heated by the furnace in the Con- 
servatory. In the basement were placed the incubators and 
brooders; on the second floor the rabbit hutches, and on the 
third the nest-boxes for guinea-pigs, rats, and mice. ‘The attic 
is devoted to pigeons. With this equipment the Chief Forester 
hopes to be able, in a short time, to supply all the small-animal 
food that is required by the animals in the Park. 
Crematory.—The difficulty in disposing very promptly of the 
dead bodies of animals not desired for scientific purposes ren- 
dered necessary the erection of a small crematory, consisting of 
a conical furnace 8 feet high and 8 feet in diameter, with brick 
walls 12 inches thick, lined with 4 inches of fire-brick. In this 
furnace, the fires of which are suppplied with waste wood, are 
consumed not only animal remains but also the garbage which 
accumulates in the Park. 
Tortoise House-—The removal of the lunch-room from the 
glass-roofed hall at the eastern end of the Reptile House ren- 
dered it possible to complete the construction and equipment of 
that hall as originally planned for the accommodation of the col- 
lection of tortoises. Additional heating pipes were installed, a 
concrete floor laid, and the spaces between the limestone pillars 
on the eastern front were properly filled in with buff brick and 
