SkKEtTcH OF THE Lire oF ANDREW Downs, FOUNDER oF THE First 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN IN AMERICA.—By-.Harry Piers. 
(See frontispiece. ) 
ANDREW Downs was born in the town of New Brunswick, New 
Jersey, U.S. A., on 27th September, 1811. His father, Robert, left 
Scotland, of which he was a native, with the intention of taking a 
position in Quebec, Canada. Some of his possessions having been 
landed at Halifax, N. S., he came here, but afterwards left for New 
Jersey, where he remained for some years. There he married Eliza- 
beth, daughter of John and Catherine Plum, who was, I understand, 
of German descent. With recollections in his mind of the city by the 
sea, Robert returned to Halifax in 1825, bringing with him his 
family, including his son Andrew, then a lad of about fourteen. 
Andrew was for sometime engaged in the plumbing business with 
his father, and later, on his own account. His tastes, however, were 
entirely of another kind, and he gradually gave more and more of his 
time to the study of nature, the preserving of birds and other animals 
and the propagation of the same, and to this work he finally devoted 
all his energies. 
I would like to emphasize the fact that to him belongs the honour 
of founding the first zoological garden in America. This he started 
at Halifax in 1847, sixteen years before the Central Park collection at 
New York was opened to the public. The Philadelphia garden did 
not open till July, 1874, although the society was incorporated a num- 
ber of years before ; while the “zoo” at Cincinnati opened in 1875, 
that at St. Louis in 1877, and the Lincoln Park Garden, Chicago, in 
1881. 
Mr. Downs commenced with a piece of land of five acres, but by 
1863 he had enlarged his premises to one hundred acres (‘‘ Walton 
Cottage”), near Dutch Village, North-West Arm, Halifax County, 
embracing wood and field, stream and pond, hill and valley. This 
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