i8o 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY [BULLETIN 



ZOOLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY BULLETIN 



EDITED BY THE DIRECTOR 



Elwin R. Sanborn, Asst. Editor. 



PuHishtd at the Office of the Society, II Wall St., New York City. 



Copyright, igo4, by the New York Zoological Society. 



No. 15. OCTOBER, 1904. 



Subscription price, 50 cents for four numbers. 



Single numbers, i 5 cents. 



MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 



©ffitrrs of tj)r ^octrtp. 

 j9tcBi6tnt : 



11(1 



LE\'I P. MORTON. 



•Crccutitie Committee: 



Charles T. Baeney, Chairman, - 

 Henry Fairfield Osborn, Madison Grant, 



John S. Barnes, William White Niles, 



Philip Schuyler, Samuel Thorne, 



Levi P. Morton-, ex-officio. 



iSenccal iDfFicecf : 



Secretary, Madison Grant, 11 Wall Street. 



Treasurer, Percy R. Pvne, 52 Wall Street. 



Director, William T. Hornaday, Zoological Park. 



Director of the .-iquariuvt, Charles H. Tuwnsend, Battery Park. 



'^oatb of Jlianaocc? : 



EX-OFFICIO, 

 The Mayor o/ the City of New York, Hon. George B McClellan. 

 The President o/ tht Deft of Parks. Hon. John J. Pallas. 



€\9.ii Of 1905. €.\9.%i of 1906. €Xa.ii of 1907. 



TEASING WITH FOOD. 



Not long since we saw in the pages of an es- 

 teemed contemporary, an article of length and 

 polish on the subject of "Bear Beggars." In 

 it the author, who is of the medical fraternity, 

 seriously set forth both fact and argument in 

 favor of the practice which prevails in the Lon- 

 don Zoo, of permitting and encouraging visitors 

 to feed the bears, and other animals. 



The argument in favor of feeding by visitors was 

 based on the amusement and entertainment fur- 

 nished to the bears, and the joys of perpetual 

 expectancy. The climax of the article was reached 

 in the following words: 



"In the New York Zoo the bears have allotted to them 

 much larger space than their cousins in London. But 



visitors to the New York Zoo are not allowed to feed the 

 animals. From morning to night there is nothing very 

 interesting to break the monotony of their captivity — 

 e.xcept the stated feeding times. From morning to night, 

 in the London Zoo, the bears are busy eating or are begging 

 for food, so there is something for them to look forward to 

 every day. While they have a few feet less space for their 

 e.xercise and amusement, it is a question whether or not 

 they do not have a happier captivity than the bears of the 

 New York Zoo. Certainly they are healthy and strong. I 

 believe that if a vote could be taken among the bears them- 

 selves, they would decide unanimously for less space, w'ith 

 begging and feeding pri\'ileges, as against more space and 

 no outside feeding or begging privileges allowed. Some- 

 times, perhaps, the visitors to the bear pits in the New 

 York Zoological Park will be allowed to feed the bears 

 It \\\\\ then be the captive bruin's paradise." 



And this from an M. D. ! This, in spite of the 

 presence here of thirty-three of the jolliest, happi- 

 est and best-behaved bears in existence, wild or 

 captive, with at least twenty times the space avail- 

 able per bear in London! This in spite of bears 

 who are as frolicsome and lively as a band of 

 schoolboys in a swimming-hole, or on a playground. 

 This in spite of the fact that because our bears are 

 not teased and irritated all day long by petty offer- 

 ings of food from the hands of visitors there is very 

 Httle bad temper, very little fighting, and the 

 keepers can go without fear amongst big and 

 powerful bears of all nations. 



And this, too, in spite of the fact that our fine 

 Himalayan Black Bear, "Jappie," was foully 

 murdered by some unwise visitor who slyly admin- 

 istered unto him four peaches, with the stones in 

 them. 



I know of no way by which our happy family 

 of bears could so easily or so surely be ruined in 

 temper, rendered thoroughly savage and dangerous, 

 and kept fighting half the time as by giving vis- 

 itors permission to feed them at their pleasure. 

 To advocate the feeding of captive animals by vis- 

 itors is to advance a proposition which if carried 

 into effect yields cruelty to animals, no more, no 

 less. w. T. H. 



THE MORAYS AT THE AQUARIUM. 



^ Dr."] Theodore j^Gill,' of ;[the^Smithsonian In- 

 stitution,%ne of^Jthe [most accompHshed ichthy- 

 ologists [^in [^the world, contributes the following 



