DEPARTMENT OF LIVING ANIMALS. 



215 



But for the valuable aud indefatigable service which has been volun- 

 tarily entered upon, chiefly as a personal favor, by Mr. W. C. Weeden, 

 in addition to his duties as assistant engineer, the Department of Living 

 Animals would have suffered very serious embarrassment, and the cura- 

 tor gladly acknowledges the value and gratifying nature of the services 

 thus rendered from February to the close of the fiscal year. 



In the month of April a fine pair of buffaloes, a bull four years of 

 age aud a three-year-old cow, then on a cattle ranch in Nebraska, were 

 purchased by Mr. E. G. Blackford, of New York, and presented to the 

 National Museum as the nucleus of a small herd. This very valuable 

 gift was gladly accepted, and Mr. Joseph Palmer was dispatched to 

 North Platte, Nebraska, to take charge of the animals and bring them 

 safely to Washington. This difficult task was accomplished with grati- 

 fying success aud economy, aud the two highly prized specimens 

 reached the Institution in fine condition on May 10. In anticipation 

 of their wants, aud to provide good accommodations for the four deer 

 then in the collection, a small barn with several yards around it had 

 been constructed on the south end of the ellipse lying in the angle be- 

 tween the Smithsonian aud the National Museum buildings. While 

 this structure is by no means conspicuous or uupleasing in design, the 

 building and yards attached afford reasonably good temporary accom- 

 modations, not only for the buffaloes and deer already occupying them, 

 but they can also receive a very small number of each in addition with- 

 out being crowded. The barn affords dry quarters for the animals dur- 

 ing rainy weather, cool shade during hot weather, a suitable outfit for 

 feeding, and also storage room for feed. 



On May 12 the chief taxidermist was appointed curator of the De- 

 partment of Living Animals. 



HEVIEW OF ACCESSIONS. 



The accession statistics of the Department afford an interesting 

 index of the interest manifested in it on the part of the general ijublic. 

 In the beginning it was predicted that one-half the specimens necessary 

 for the various collections would be offered as gifts. The following is 

 a statement of the whole number of living animals acquired from Octo- 

 bers, 1887, to June 30, 1888, and the manner of their acquisition : 



Mammals . . 



Birds 



Reptiles ... 



Total 



Eeceived 

 as gifts. 



123 



Purchased. 



Bred in 

 menagerie. 



32 



38 



Total. 



74 

 72 

 26 



172 



No. of 

 species rep- 

 resented. 



