NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 73 
tile House and Primate House, but the animal sculptures, 
all by Mr. Eli Harvey, are more abundant and conspicuous 
than on any other structure erected heretofore. The build- 
ing contains 13 indoor cages, and 9 outdoor cages, and be- 
tween the two there is free communication. The sizes of 
the various cages are as follows: 
Interior cages: Largest, 14 feet wide, 22 feet deep; small- 
est, 13 feet wide, 14 feet high. 
Exterior cages: two end cages, 40x44 feet, 17 feet high; 
central cage, 40 feet square, 14 feet high; smallest, 13 feet 
wide, 12 feet deep, 13 feet high. 
Excepting for the single fact of having interior and ex- 
terior cages, the Lion House of the Zoological Park is—like 
the Primate House—an entirely original development. Its 
most important new features are as follows: 
All cage service, the introducing and withdrawal of ani- 
mals, is conducted from the rear, by means of a track under- 
neath the sieeping dens, and an elevating platform car. 
The communication between indoor and outdoor cages is 
direct and continuous. 
Instead of upright iron bars, all the cage fronts are of 
hard-steel wire netting, in rectangular pattern, attached to 
wrought iron frames. This is considered by the Zoological 
Society a great improvement upon the heavy bar-work 
hitherto in universal use for cage fronts in lion houses. 
The space above the sleeping dens has been developed 
as a sunlit balcony, whereon the animals will be very con- 
spicuous, even to large crowds of visitors. 
Jungle-green tiling, impervious to moisture and dirt, is 
used as a back-ground for the animals. 
The Lion is an animal of perpetual interest, but like 
every other noteworthy wild animal, its haunts are con- 
stantly being claimed by civilization, and its members are 
rapidly decreasing. It is not a difficult matter to exter- 
minate or drive out from a given territory any large and 
conspicuous quadruped, and at the present rate of settle- 
ment and industrial development in Africa, it may easily 
come to pass that by the end of the present century, the 
king of beasts will be without a home, outside of zoological 
collections. 
Like everything great, the Lion has his share of critics 
and detractors. A few writers have asserted that because he 
does not stalk through his native forests with head proudly 
erect, like a drum-major on parade, he is mean-spirited and 
cowardly. But the beast of noble countenance believes in 
