NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 147 
but merely a brief statement of a fact which the visitor has 
a right to know. It was designed on our long-established 
principle that every captive wild creature is entitled to 
life, exercise and happiness. Our principle of very large 
cages, with many birds in each cage, is just the reverse of 
the views that have prevailed in the older zoological gardens, 
even down to the present day. To an important extent, the 
cage equipment of this building represents a new departure. 
There are many zoologists with experience longer than ours 
who believe that small birds thrive better and live longer 
when installed in small cages, with only one or two birds in 
each. 
The Large Bird-House, specially designed for Passerine 
birds, was developed on the strength of experiments pre- 
viously made in the Aquatic-Bird House, and in community 
cages outside. After three years’ experience with the 
new building, and a careful tabulation of diseases and death 
rates within it, we are able to state that this installation 
is a complete and gratifying success. 
The Large Bird-House is an L-shaped building, with an 
all-glass house in its angle. The main hall extends east and 
west, and it is 60 feet long by 50 feet wide. This great 
room contains the foreign song-birds, many tropical doves 
and pigeons, and such tropical varieties and oddities as the 
great crowned pigeons, tinamous, toucans, giant king-fishers 
and hornbills. In the great central flying cage there is per- 
haps the most remarkable ommiuim-gatherum of small tropical 
birds—swimmers, waders, upland game birds and perch- 
ers—ever brought together in one cage. The bottom of 
the L is the Parrots’ Hall, 65x30 feet. It contains the par- 
rots, macaws, cockatoos, and a few other species. 
In the angle of the main building stands a structure al- 
most wholly composed of metal and glass, which is known as 
the Glass Court. It was designed especially for North Amer- 
ican song-birds. The visitor should not overlook the fact 
that there are cages filled with birds all along both the east- 
ern and western sides of the Large Bird-House. 
The capacity of this installation as a whole may be judged 
from the following memorandum of cages: 
APPROXIMATE SIZES OF CAGES OF THE LARGE BIRD-HOUSE 
INDOORS. 
Main Hall...Central Flying Cage. .15x36x20 feet high.. 1 
Side Cages 5x5x9 35 
End Cages 5x12x9 2 
