58 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



will be fully described elsewhere in this volume. Among the 

 birds of special interest acquired during the year the following 

 were the most noteworthy : 



A fine adult specimen of the great white heron — a bird of 

 exceeding rarity — was received by purchase from Miami, Flor- 

 ida. Two African ostriches were received by gift from Mrs. 

 Frederic Ferris Thompson, and pending the completion of the 

 Ostrich House, have been placed on exhibition in the Antelope 

 House. Three blue geese, and specimens of the avocet and stilt, 

 were received from Brownsville, Texas. 



Two specimens of the pinnated grouse were received by ex- 

 change; and a ptarmigan, from Alaska, was purchased in De- 

 cember, but survived in the Park only three days. 



To the Bird Department, the most notable event of the year 

 was the beginning of work on the erection of the Large Bird 

 House. Owing to the very considerable cost represented by the 

 lowest bid when the contract for that building was first adver- 

 tised, in the spring of 1903, the contract was withdrawn, the 

 plans were restudied with a view to reducing the cost of the 

 structure, and later on a new contract was advertised. On this 

 occasion the lowest bid was accepted, and by the end of Decem- 

 ber the foundation walls were ready to receive the base course of 

 granite. It is believed that this building will be as perfect in its 

 appointments for the care of its collections as any other which 

 the Society has erected. It will contain a really great amount of 

 cage room, outdoors as well as within, and it will accommodate 

 as large a collection of perching birds, shore birds and members 

 of the Order Psittaci (parrots, macaws, etc.), as the Society will 

 desire to exhibit. 



During a large portion of the year 1903, the Zoological Park, 

 as a whole, was greatly plagued by an enormous influx of rats. 

 To everyone concerned with the work of the Bird Department 

 these vermin were an intolerable pest, and were resisted vigor- 

 ously, with poison, traps and guns. Ferrets were tried, but 

 proved of no practical value. Finally the services of two rat- 

 terriers were employed, and these proved effective. The Park, as 

 a whole, is now as free from rats as such an institution can rea- 

 sonably hope to be in a rat-infested city ; but the warfare against 

 these obnoxious creatures must necessarily be constant and vig- 

 orous. The wide distribution of grain throughout the Park, as 

 used in feeding both mammals and birds, constitutes a perpetual 

 attraction to vermin living around the Park, and, like stray 

 cats, they continually pour in. 



