42 ^'I'^v vork /ooi.ocicai. S()Cii-:tv. 



Zooloj^ical Society is under jxirticular obligations to Dr. P. L. 

 Sclater, vSccretary, ami Mr. Clarence Hartlett, Asst. Superin- 

 tendent, of the Zoological Society of London ; Mons. F. 

 L'hoest, Director of the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, 

 and Mons. J. De Winter, now Director of the Cairo Zoological 

 Gardens ; to Dr. A. Von Beninielin, Director of the Rotterdam 

 Gardens of Zoology and Botany; to In.spector Johannes Castens 

 of Amsterdam ; to Herr Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg; Dr. 

 L. Heck, of Berlin; Dr. Krnest Schiiff, of Hanover; Dr. L. 

 Wunderlich, of Cologne, and Prof. A. Milne-I^dwards of the 

 Paris Jardin des Plantes. All these gentlemen did everything 

 in their power to facilitate the investigations and render valuable 

 co-operation in the work to be done by this Society. Director 

 L'hoest, of the beautiful Antwerp Garden, even offers to receive 

 any keepers we may choose to send to him for the benefit of two 

 or three months' experience and training in that institution. 



I may add, as a final deduction from the gardens seen 

 abroad, the conviction that no institution presents a greater 

 number of problems to be .solved, and no institution affords a 

 finer field for criticism than the creation and management of a 

 large zoological garden. I believe, however, that with such a 

 site as South Bronx Park, and with the information this Society 

 now^ possesses, the danger of mistakes will be reduced to a 

 minimum, and the chances of gratifying success increased to 

 the maximum. 



No one of the gardens recently visited occupies ground 

 which can for one moment be compared, either in physical 

 character or in extent, with the matchless site that has been 

 chosen by this Society for the Zoological Park of America. 

 When it was described to the directors of the best European 

 gardens, even in guarded and conservative terms, their sur- 

 prise and envy were both open and unbounded. And more than 

 one exclaimed: " With such ground, and the money that New 

 York will give you, you can do anything that you choose ! " 



Respectfully submitted, 



WlIJJ.\M T. HORNADAY, 



Director. 



