26 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



Near the close of the year work was begun on a hospital and labor- 

 atory building, the urgent need of which was noted in my last 

 report. 



In the sundry civil act making appropriations for the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1914, provision was made for the acquisition of about 

 10 acres of land along the western boundary of the park, but neces- 

 sary legal proceedings to complete the purchase had not come to a 

 close at the end of the year. 



Among the primary objects in establishing the Zoological Park was 

 the "instruction and recreation of the people." To tliis end the 

 playground department of the District of Columbia has been allowed 

 to install several pieces of apparatus in a meadow tract which has 

 become a favorite resort for picnic parties. 



The needs of the park become greater with the growth of the col- 

 lections and the increasing popularity of the resort as an attractive 

 public institution. The appropriations from year to year, while 

 sufficient for absolute maintenance, have permitted the construction 

 of but few of such permanent buildings as are needed for the ade- 

 quate care of the animals. Among these urgent needs I may mention 

 an aviary building and a building for the proper housing of ele- 

 phants, hippopotami, and certain other animals now sheltered in 

 mere temporary quarters. 



Accompanying the superintendent's report is an outline map on 

 which are indicated desirable building sites where necessary grading 

 for that purpose would permit the desirable filling of certain ravines 

 now practically useless. 



NECROLOGY. 



THEODORE NICHOLAS GILL. 



Theodore Nicholas Gill was born at New York March 21, 1837, 

 and died at Washington September 25, 1914. The following tribute 

 to his memory was adopted at a meeting of his associates on Sep- 

 tember 26: 



TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF DR. GILI/. 



Theodore Nicholas Gill, master of arts, doctor of medicine, doctor of philos- 

 ophy, doctor of laws, associate in zoology in the United States National IMuseum. 

 died at Washington, D. C, September 25, 1914, in the seventy-eighth year of his 

 age. 



His associates in the Smithsonian Institution and its several branches, 

 assembled at a meeting in his memory at the National Miiseum on September 

 2G, do here record their deep sorrow in the loss of a sincere friend, profound 

 scholar, one of America's foremost men of science, and one offlcially connected 

 with the Smithsonian Institution in various capacities for more than half a 

 century. 



Trained in private schools and by special tutors in New York City, he early 

 acquired a love for natural science which he made his life work, rising to the 



