88 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



cided to prepare outdoor cages for his use adjoining his winter home 

 in the lion house. The hyena cage next to his indoor quarters was 

 therefore remodeled and connected with his main apartment, and two 

 spacious outdoor yards prepared for his use. He noAV has two com- 

 fortable indoor rooms and two outdoor yards, which makes the 

 problem of his care much more simple, as it is not necessary with the 

 new arrangement for his keepers to work while he is i*i the same room 

 or outdoor cage. 



Among minor improvements completed during the year are wide 

 concrete steps connecting the walk in front of the bears with the 

 walk on the lower level along the sea-lion and beaver pools; new 

 drainage gutters at antelope house; new fence along hilltop below 

 children's playgrounds and sand boxes near the Adams Mill en- 

 trance ; and repairs to road between Klingle entrance and the upper 

 ford. The reconstruction of the old outdoor chimpanzee cage into 

 quarters suitable for a grizzly bear and the re-covering of the large 

 outdoor cage for the California condors were both well under way, 

 and would have been completed before the close of the fiscal year 

 but for the fact that the cement and wire needed in the work could 

 not, at that time, be obtained in Washington. 



Alteration of the western houndary. — This item has been consid- 

 ered in the annual report for many years, and it is therefore espe- 

 cially gratifying now to be able to report actual progress on the 

 purchase of the land necessary to protect the western entrance. The 

 sundry civil act for 1921, approved during the past year, carries an 

 appropriation of $80,000 for the purchase of all the land between the 

 western boundary of the park and the unnamed street connecting 

 Cathedral Avenue with Klingle Road, excepting one small lot at the 

 southern end, together with 300 feet each side of Jewett Street front- 

 ing on Connecticut Avenue. All of Jewett Street, which now con- 

 nects the park with Connecticut Avenue, and the included portion 

 of the unnamed street running parallel with Connecticut Avenue are 

 to become a part of the National Zoological Park, and a 50-foot road- 

 way at each end of the area to be purchased will be taken over by 

 the District of Columbia to connect the unnamed street with Con- 

 necticut Avenue. The area appropriated for includes 209,050.5 

 square feet, and the park will now be bounded at this point by public 

 highways instead of privately owned property. The frontage on 

 Connecticut Avenue, including the former Jewett Street, will be 

 625 feet — ample for all purposes. 



IMPORTANT NEEDS. 



Restaurant. — As mentioned in the last annual report one of the 

 most urgent needs of the park is a suitable public restaurant. The 

 present refreshment stand, entirely inadequate and in a bad state of 



