8 The National Collection 



would attach to certain groups, such for example as the Cervidae, when it is 

 possible for the eye to comprehend at one sweep the long line of forms related 

 to the Altai Wapiti. Imagine, also, the radiation of the genus Ovis from 

 western Mongolia southward to India, westward to Sardinia and Morocco, 

 and northeastward by the grand loop to Kamchatka, Alaska, and Mexico. 



The second series naturally would be created to display the ungulate re- 

 sources of the continents; and herein would maps of the geographical distribu- 

 tion of families, of genera, and of species be strongly in evidence. In this 

 series would be shown the centers of distribution and the culminating points of 

 many species popular with American sportsmen and naturalists. Here would 

 be displayed or deposited an endless series of maps and pictures illustrating 

 the haunts and home life of important species. Here would naturally be 

 gathered together such a collection of photographs of living wild animals, 

 both in their haunts and in captivity, as never yet has been formed. The 

 records of big game which naturally would accumulate in the national collec- 

 tion, soon would represent great zoological value. 



There are many reasons why a national collection of heads and horns 

 should be formed and displayed in New York, rather than elsewhere. The 

 metropolis of the western continent is the natural home of the greatest edu- 

 cational collections of America. Hither come, sooner or later, all American 

 sportsmen and naturalists, and the majority of those who visit our continent 

 from abroad. New York is truly a pan- American city. Its Zoological So- 

 ciety is in keen sympathy with the proposition, and offers the guarantee of 

 space and permanency which is absolutely essential to success. The natural 

 home of such a collection as that proposed is in the beautifully forested 

 grounds of the Zoological Park, surrounded by the living representatives of 

 now sixty-five but presently a hundred species of hoofed animals. Further- 

 more the Zoological Park already enjoys the support and co-operation of a 

 large number of American sportsmen who are specially interested in the ungu- 

 lates of the world. 



In England practically all British sportsmen pour their finest and rarest 

 horned trophies into the South Kensington Museum. Very naturally, the re- 

 sult is a collection of ungulates which is at once the envy and the despair of 

 Americans. As yet no American museum possesess a collection which is even 

 second to it; and we greatly fear that, for reasons only too apparent, no 

 museum on this side of the Atlantic ever will rival that marvelous gathering 

 of hoofed and horned rarities. 



