32 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



House is also, I think, in some respects inferior to 

 our own, on which, however, it shows a practical 

 improvement in the shape of wire netting, which 

 replaces the old-fashioned bars. This netting, 

 which has a guaranteed breaking tension suffi- 

 ciently high to remove all cause of alarm, does less 

 than bars to impede the visitor's view of the mag- 

 nificent captives, for which it is also probably more 

 comfortable, since they cannot injure themselves 

 against it as they do by constant contact with bars. 

 There is also a well-lighted studio, in which, with 

 the aid of a specially designed cage, students can 

 work from the living model. On the whole, the 

 big cats have done well at Bronx, and I heard of 

 only one tragedy enacted within its walls, when the 

 jaguar, a dour-looking brute, assassinated a female 

 provided to enliven his solitude, giving her so 

 tremendous a bite as to drive splinters of her skull 

 through the windpipe. In the Monkey House 

 there is a freer circulation of air than is permitted 

 in other Zoos, and Mr Hornaday assured me that 

 to this generous ventilation he attributes the low 

 death-rate among these usually delicate animals, so 

 often the victims of phthisis. Epidemics are rare at 

 Bronx, though a mysterious malady, never satis- 

 factorily diagnosed, carried off most of the Cali- 

 fornian sea-lions one mild week in the winter, and, 

 curiously enough, the native deer are found to be 

 more susceptible to disease in captivity than those 

 imported from Asia. 



I was glad to congratulate the Director on the 

 comparative absence of that silly habit of feeding 

 the animals, the ruin of many animals in our Zoo 

 at home. As recently as August, 1906, a fine bear 



