642 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 
ELWIN R. SANBORN, EpDIToR. 
Departments: 
MAMMAL 
W. T. Hornabay, Sc. D. 
AQU ARIUM 
BIRD 
C. WILLIAM BEEBE. 
REPTILE 
RAYMOND L, DITMARS. 
Published Bi-Monthly at the Office of the Society, 
11 Wall Street, New York City. 
Single Numbers, 10 Cents; Yearly, 50 Cents. 
MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 
1910, by the New York Zoological Society. 
MARCH, 1910 
Copyright, 
NuMBER 38 
Officers of the Society. 
President : 
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN. 
Executtue Committee: 
MapIson GRANT, Chairman, 
SAMUEL THORNE, WILLIAM WHITE NILEs, 
Levi P. Morton, WM. PIERSON HAMILTON 
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, Ex-Officio. 
General Officers - 
Secretary, MADISON GRANT, 11 WALL STREET. 
Treasurer, PERCY R. PYNE, 30 PINE STREET. 
Director, WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Sc.D., ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 
Director of the Aquarium, CHARLES H. TOWNSEND,SC. D., BATTERY PARK. 
Board of Managers: 
Ex-Officio 
The Mayor of the City of New York 
The President of the Department of ow, 
Glass of 1911. Glass of 1912. 
Henry KF, Osborn, Levi P. Morton, F. Augustus Schermerhorn 
William C. Church, Andrew Carnegie, Percy R. Pyne, 
Lispenard Stewart, John L, Cadwalader, George B. Grinnell, 
H. Casimir De Rham, John 8. Barnes, Jacob H. Schiff, 
Hugh D. Auchincloss, Madison Grant, George C. Clark, 
Charles F. Dieterich, William White Niles, Cleveland H. Dodge, 
James J. Hill, Samuei Thorne, C. Ledyard Blair, 
George F. Baker, Henry A. C. Taylor, Nelson Robinson, 
Grant B. Schley, Hugh J. Chisholm, Frederick G. Bourne, 
Payne Whitney, Frank K. Sturgis, W. Austin Wadsworth, 
James W. Barney, George J. Gould, Emerson MeMillin, 
Wm. PiersonHamilton Ogden Mills Anthony R. Kuser 
Officers of the Zoological Park : 
Werte ELORNADAN, Sc. D., Director. 
H. R. MitcHELL - Chief c lerk and Disbursing Officer. 
KAYMOND L, DITMARS Curator of Reptiles. 
C, WILLIAM BEEBE = Curator of Birds. 
W. Rep Buarr, D.V.S. Veter rian and Pathologist. 
H. W. MERKEL - Chief Forester and Constructor. 
G. M. BEERBOWER Mi Engineer, 
W. I. MircHELL - Office Assistant. 
ELWIN R,. SANBORN - - - Editor and Photographer. 
Officers of the Aquarium: 
CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, Sc.D., Director. 
L. B. SPENCER = = = = = - Fresh Water Collections. 
W. I. DENYSE = > - = Marine Collections. 
JOHN S. BARNES, 
PERCY R. PYNE, 
Hon. WILLIAM J. GAYNOR 
HON. CHARLES B. STOVER 
Glass of 1913. 
ENLARGEMENT OF THE 
BUILDING. 
The year 1909 brought to the Aquarium 
3,803,501 visitors—an average of 10,417 a day. 
Every year shows an increase, and the total at- 
tendance for the past thirteen years exceeds 
twenty-five and one-half millions. 
The Annual Report of the Zoological Society, 
now in press, contains plans for an enlarged 
building, which is greatly needed. The number 
of people visiting the Aquarium is greater than 
that of all the other museums of the City com- 
bined, and there is every reason to believe that 
it will continue to increase. The time has come 
for a larger building, and the Aquarium should 
AQUARIUM 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
BULLETIN. 
be given its rightful place among our institu- 
tions as a great marine museum. It should be 
large enough to contain three times the number 
and variety of aquatic forms it now contains, 
and should have a scientific staff capable of do- 
ing properly the museum work already being 
demanded of it by the people. 
The Director with the aid of a single stenog- 
rapher finds himself unable to attend to the cor- 
respondence, office and museum work thrust upon 
him. The Aquarium should be enlarged, should 
have a staff of curators, and be given the com- 
mon facilities for museum work that are freely 
granted to the other museums of the city. 
These important matters are set forth in de- 
tail in the Annual Report, and their careful con- 
sideration is urgently recommended to the mem- 
bers of the Zoological Society and the citizens 
of New York. 
CAN WE SAVE THE FUR SEAL? 
The American fur-seal herd breeding on the 
Pribilof Islands in Bering Sea, has _ been 
shrinking in size and commercial value ever 
since the business of pelagic or ocean sealing 
came into really active existence, about 1880. 
A careful census of the herd made on the 
islands last summer by the Bureau of Fisheries, 
shows that there are about 150,000 seals of all 
ages remaining, the important class of breed- 
ing females numbering about 50,000. The cen- 
sus of 1897 revealed 150,000 breeding females. 
The cause of the decline has been the continu- 
ance of pelagic sealing, which is destructive to 
the mother seals, and results in a further loss of 
equal numbers of young by starvation. 
For some years after the regulations of the 
Paris Award, restricting the operations of the 
pelagic sealing fleet, within a zone of 60 miles 
of the Pribilof Islands, were put into operation, 
the decline in the seal herd was comparatively 
slow, although certain. 
More recently a fleet of Japanese vessels has 
been engaged in sealing close to the territorial 
limit of three miles from the islands, Japan not 
being a party to the regulations framed by the 
Paris Arbitration. 
This has resulted in transferring our long 
standing pelagic sealing problem from Canada 
to Japan, while the advance of the seal killing 
line from the 60 mile limit to the immediate vi- 
cinity of the breeding grounds of the seals, has 
accelerated the rate of destruction of seal life. 
United States vessels have long been prohib- 
ited from engaging in pelagic sealing. 
The large catches formerly made at sea by 
vessels, and on land under Government super- 
vision, can no longer be made. Canadian ves- 
