448 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907, 
aided in the education and instruction of the people. Certain of 
their collections are doubtless fine, but the species of animals there 
shown are placed in a wholly artificial order, and the visitors seem 
to look only for the beasts that are most curious in form or color or 
most amusing in their movements. 
Neither do the gardens serve to illustrate the zoological history of 
their countries, for we have not found anywhere, reproducing in a 
constant manner, representatives of the indigenous species or varieties 
that are at the present time threatened with extinction—the wild 
cattle and cats of Scotland and England, the red deer of Ireland, the 
cats and fowls of the Isle of Man, ete. 
The zoological gardens do, however, offer at the present’ time a 
great advantage; that is, that they enable us to ascertain, by a com-_ 
parison of their methods, the best means of preserving wild animals 
in captivity. This is by no means a slight matter, for this knowledge 
is evidently the primary condition without which it would not be 
possible to make any satisfactory observation or experiment. 
