190 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



A CAGE IN THE OSTRICH HOUSE. 



that they are most desirable birds. They are not 

 only very odd and showy, even from afar, but they 

 are easy to keep, they live satisfactorily (when 

 properly housed and protected from visitors), and 

 it does not cost a small fortune to fill a building. 

 Considering their exhibition value, the birds of 

 this Order are purchasable at very reasonable 

 prices. Individual values range all the way from 

 $100 to $250, and a really fine collection can be 

 secured by the expenditure of about $3,000. 



It is the fault of the English language that it is 

 necessary to call this building the Ostrich House — 

 a one-sided designation for a structure half filled 

 with emeus and cassowaries. The only reason 

 for not naming it the Ratite House is that no one 

 vi^ould understand the meaning of the name. It 



IS now a very common 

 thing for Enghsh-speaking 

 naturalists to find their lan- 

 guage so poverty-stricken in 

 adjectives and nouns that no 

 English names can be found 

 for new species of living 

 creatures. 



Architecturally, the Os- 

 trich House is a couriter- 

 part of the Small-Mammal 

 House. The two are con- 

 nected by a spacious open 

 _li pavilion, with a concrete 



B lloor, and they are heated 



" '' by the same furnaces. Hav- 



ing no cages along its west- 

 ern side, either within or 

 without, the Ostrich House 

 has a more pleasing e.xterior 

 than the other. Within, also, 

 the spacious series of win- 

 dows looking westward ren- 

 der the interior more cheer- 

 ful and pleasant than the 

 interior of the Mammal 

 House. 



The interior cages extend 

 along the eastern side of this 

 building. They have a depth 

 cf twelve feet, and the unit 

 width of each is ten feet. 

 In anticipation, however, of 

 quarrelsome individuals re- 

 quiring solitary confinement, 

 six movable partitions have 

 been erected in six of the standard-size cages, so that 

 as seen to-day the equipment consists of six large 

 cages and fourteen that are half size. 



The cage-work is eight feet high, and in front it 

 consists of electrically welded netting, the meshes 

 of which are two by four inches. In each cage 

 there is a porcelain-lined drinking-basin, which is 

 filled and emptied by valves in the keepers' passage, 

 behind the guard-rail. 



Like the Small-Mammal House, the entire roof 

 of the building is of glass, with top ventilation. 

 Its temperature is maintained at 65°. The in- 

 terior cages connect with a series of eight outside 

 }-ards of various shapes and sizes. The largest 

 vard contains 5,600 square feet, the smallest 1,600. 

 Five of the yards have a length of eighty feet, but 



