60 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



great majority of the birds are positively happy. To doubt the 

 assertion that they arc contented and happy is to doubt the evi- 

 dence furnished of the human eye. The community principle, 

 by which many individuals are caged together in large cages, is 

 an unqualified success. 



During the past year the death rate in the bird collection as 

 a whole has been greatly reduced. It was about fifty pcr-cent. 

 less than during the previous year, and has reached a point be- 

 low which it would seem impossible for the death rate in a col- 

 lection of this magnitude ever to go. Such results can not 

 reasonably be hoped for each year. 



No new installations for birds were provided during the past 

 vear. As the death rate has been remarkably low the advantages 

 of large community cages is further proven. While the success 

 of the past year was partly due to favorable weather, it should in 

 the main be accredited to three precautionary factors in the care 

 of the birds : first, the invariable rule of quarantining every newly 

 arrived individual for a certain length of time ; second, the daily 

 removal of the surface sand and cleansing of the cages ; and, third, 

 the constant watch for symptoms of illness, with the instant re- 

 moval and treatment of cases in the isolated rooms that are used 

 as hospitals. Food, of course, is a factor of great importance, 

 but without the above measures the most perfect regimen would 

 be of little avail in keejjing so great a number of living birds in 

 good health. 



The most important addition of the \ear in the Bird Depart- 

 ment was the arrival of over one hundred birds, many of large 

 size, from the London Zoological Gardens, received in exchange 

 for a shipment of American birds. Among the rarer birds in 

 this lot was a Kolbe vulture, lammergeier, Australian wedge- 

 tailed eagle, brush turkeys, black-footed penguins, bearded tit- 

 mice, piping crows, crow-shrikes, greater spotted woodpeckers, 

 white-crested touracous, hyacinthine macaw and hoopoe. 



Another notable feature of the year was the forming of a large 

 collection of native American song birds, especially the wood 

 warblers. Of this latter group twenty-three species have been 

 placed on exhibition, including such rare and delicate birds as 

 the Connecticut, mourning, palm and worm-eating warblers. The 

 sight of these living migrants in their winter plumage is new 

 even to the learned ornitholugisl, and to the ordinary lover of 

 birds it is a treat to be able to follow them through their annual 

 changes of plumage. Nowhere else, except in Mexico and Brazil, 

 can these species be seen alive at this period of the year. 



