ZOOLOGICAL 
692 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN, CALCUTTA. 
Breeding colony 
THE CALCUTTA ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN. 
By C. Wiri1amM Berse. 
HE Zoological Garden of Caleutta is situ- 
ated in one of the suburbs of the city Alipur, 
three or four miles from the main thorough- 
fares. It is a Zoological Garden seen through 
the small end of the field glass—complete, but 
everything in miniature. As an example of 
landscape gardening it probably has few equals 
in the world. 
It dates from the year 1875, when the Goy- 
ernment of Bengal granted about thirty-three 
acres this At present, although 
under the nominal control of a 
for purpose. 
Committee, consisting of doctors 
and civilians, it is practically a 
government institution. 
From the Bengal Government 
it receives an annual maintenance 
grant of 20,000 rupees, while the 
gate receipts furnish an addi- 
tional 36,000 rupees. In Amer- 
ican coinage these sums repre- 
sent about $6,800 and $12,000, 
respectively. The amount of the 
gate receipts seems all the more 
remarkable when we learn that 
the ordinary admission charge is 
one anna, about ten cents. 
There are about thirty-four 
installations, most of 
them are called, although many 
are hardly deserving of more 
than the title of sheds, kennels 
houses 
of wild night herons, egrets and snakebirds 
SOCIETY BULLETIN. 
But in this cli- 
mate of perpetual summer, no 
The more 
pretentious installations have 
each been presented by some 
person interested in the Gar - 
den, and each of these bears the 
name. For example, 
we the Abdul Ghuni 
House for bears, the Murihida- 
bad House for birds of para- 
dise, and the Burdwan Raj 
House for the larger carniy- 
or shelters. 
more is required. 
donor’s 
have 
ores. 
During the few brief visits 
to this interesting little Zoo- 
logical Garden, which my 
pheasant studies at the Mu- 
seum allowed me to make, I 
was able to note the more strik- 
ing exhibits. 
The Caleutta climate is such that few crea- 
tures hailing from cold or desert regions will 
long If Himalayan pheasants are 
brought down at the beginning of November 
survive. 
they will live for a few months and then succumb 
to the increasing heat. Although numerous orang- 
utans, old and young, have been procured from 
all die from tuberculosis within a 
short time, having contracted the disease before 
they reach the country. The hoolock gibbon is 
one of the prominent features of the Garden. 
Singapore, 
both from its strange “travelling ring’ method 
of progression back and forth across the roof 
of its large cage, and its human hoots and howls 
LAKE IN ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN, CALCUTTA. 
