ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



885 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



flrparlmrntfi: 



Mammal Reptile 



W. T. Hornaday. Raymond L. Ditmars. 



Aquarium Bird 



C. H. Townsend. C. William Beebe. 



Raymond C. Osblrn 



Lee S. Crandall. 



Published Bi-Monthly at the Office of the Society, 



11 Wall Street, New York City. 



Yearly, by Mail, Sl.'O 



MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 



Copyright, 1912, by the New York Zoological Society. 



Each author is responsible for the scientific accuracy 

 and the proof reading of his contribution. 



Elwin R. Sanborn. Editor. 



Vol. XVI. Xo. 



JULY, 191:2 



THE LAND OF THE "FREE" 



The care that people bestow upon property 

 other than their own, is the truest index of their 

 thrift and character. Generally those who are in 

 the most straitened circumstances have but slight 

 conception of the value of their possessions, and 

 are just as proportionately careless with the 

 property of others. In some cases they are 

 merely indifferent and thoughtless. Then there 

 is another class that is wilfully malicious and 

 destructive. It is a positive delight for them to 

 steal and commit all sorts of other depredations 

 when they are not under observation. 



If the forest lands of the Park were opened 

 wide for a single Sunday, the damage resulting 

 could not be made good in an entire year. Every 

 bush and shrub would be reduced to a naked 

 skeleton, if any remained at all, and every tree 

 might well tremble for the safety of its lower 

 branches. It may be a noble thought to com- 

 mit the peoples' parks to "the care of the 

 people," but those who would scorn the re- 

 sponsibility are altogether too numerous. A 

 great many of the visitors to the Park on Sun- 

 day, or any other day, have not the slightest 

 desire to exercise their privilege in a decent and 

 conscientious manner. 



The disorderly ten per cent, move across the 

 landscape like a blight, and the trail of debris 

 in their wake is the testimony of their con- 

 tempt for law and order. It is sad enough when 

 the responsibility is carelessly or thoughtlessly 

 laid aside, but when the human impulse is purely 

 malicious, it would seem that the vaunted "cradle 

 of liberty" sometimes turns out human docu- 

 ments that do not recognize the difference be- 

 tween liberty and license. 



On a warm Sunday in June, two of the Park 

 benches near the Elk House were occupied by a 



large family or several persons. To mention 

 the nationality would be to assail us with the 

 pride of 2,000 years of bigoted ancestry; so we 

 will call them Americans. As rapidly as they 

 ate their luncheon, just so rapidly was the 

 ground strewn with egg-shells, fruit-skins, 

 papers, boxes and tins. One of the keepers 

 passing, went to the great pains to bring a debris 

 can to the spot and compel the visitors to clean 

 the place thoroughly and put the rubbish into the 

 can. Later in the day he returned to find that 

 the little party of pleasure seekers had carefully 

 overturned the can and scattered the contents in 

 every direction over the ground, littering the 

 place, not only with their own garbage, but 

 that of perhaps a hundred others who very de- 

 cently had the care of the grounds on their 

 minds. 



There are times when "liberty" is so grossly 

 abused that it becomes a curse to decent citizens, 

 and we often see that result in the Zoological 

 Park. E. R. S. 



NEW MEMBERS 



April 1, 1912, to June 6, 1912 



life members 



Mrs. James M. Varnum, Mrs. Frederick A. Constable 

 H. M. Tilford, Mrs. William F. Milton, 



.Mrs. Charles W. Cooper, Charles deRham, 

 Mrs. Anna Woerishoffer. 



ANNUAL MEMBERS 



Miss Pauline Robinson, Mrs. Xicholas Murray Butler, 

 Mrs. Richard Stevens, Mrs. Lewis Cass Ledyard, 

 Mrs. Goelet Gallatin, Mrs. J. Todhunter Thompson, 

 Maj. E. J. Winterroth, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, 

 William Lowe, Mrs. Edgar S. Auchincloss, Sen., 



Miss Marion Scofleld, Mrs. Eric Pierson Swenson, 

 Joseph McAleenan, Mrs. William Allen Adriance, 

 Henry Graves, Jr., Miss F. Randolph Peaslee, 

 Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, Mrs. Alexander vonGontard, 

 Mrs. Alexis W. Stein, Mrs. James Stewart Cushman, 

 Mrs. G. L. Smidt, Mrs. John Jesse Lapbam, 



Miss Louise M. Iselin, Countess deLangier-Villars, 

 Mrs. W. A. M. Burden, Mrs. August Heckscher, 

 Mrs. S. M. Jarvis, Mrs. Walter N. Kernan, 



Mrs. Gorham Baeon, Miss Mary C. Huntington, 

 Mrs. John C. Clark, Mrs. Josephs. Auerbach, 

 Mrs. Francis Rogers, Mrs. John Harsen Rhoades, 

 Adolph Vietor, Mrs. Snowden Fahnestock, 



Duff G. Maynard, Miss Cornelia X. Simons, 



Mrs. A. Mason Jones, Mrs. William Manice, 

 Mrs. F. T. Adams, Miss Anna Edgar Donald, 



Mrs. Wheldon Keeling, Mrs. J. Arden Harriman, 

 Mrs. Walter L. Carr, Mrs. Henry S. Redmond, 

 Mrs. James Roosevelt, Mrs. Henry Wilmerding Payne, 

 Mrs. John H. Scoville, Miss Elisabeth B. Brundige, 

 Walter R. Callender, Mrs. Charles Stewart Smith, 

 George B. Goodwin, Mrs. Melvin A. Bronson, 

 Miss Anne K. Eastman, Mrs. C. Tiffany Richardson, 

 Mrs. August Zinsser, Mrs. Horace Clark Du Val, 

 Frederick W. Pope, Mrs. Alvin W. Krech, 

 Mrs. C. C. Auchincloss, Baroness R de Graffenried. 



