ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



543 



LARGE BIRD-HOUSE AND ITALIAN GARDEN IN BAIRD COURT. 



THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK OF OUR DAY. 



By William T. Hornaday. 



Photographically illustrated by Elwin R. Sanborn. 



DESPITE the greed and blood-lust of man, 

 civilized as well as savage, this gun-ridden 

 world still contains a marvelous array of 

 wild life. It is right to speak of the animate 

 portion of Nature's works as the animal king- 

 dom. Man himself is the king of beasts, but 

 there are many assistant kings and princes and 

 potentates, some of which are in certain ways 

 almost as interesting as himself. 



Even in this day of endless travel and travel- 

 ers, it is not everyone who can go to the ends of 

 the earth ; and of the human millions, only a 

 very small percentage can make it possible to 

 see many wild creatures in their haunts. Yet do 

 people of intelligence desire to know the wild 

 life of the world ; and so we have systematic 

 collections of animals, living and dead. 



The highest function that any wild animal 

 can serve, living or dead, is to go on exhibition. 



as a representative of its species, to be seen 

 and studied by millions of serious-minded 

 people. 



The imperial City of New York presents to 

 the world her Zoological Park, and invites man- 

 kind to behold in it a huge living assemblage 

 of beasts, birds and reptiles, gathered from 

 every region of the globe, kept together in com- 

 fortable captivity, and skilfully fed and tend- 

 ed, in order that millions of people may know 

 and appreciate the marvels of the Animal King- 

 dom. To make a Park and collection worthy 

 of the fauna of the world, and of the metropolis 

 of the New World, has been a gigantic task : but 

 the people of New York have proven equal to 

 it, and the result is now practically complete. 



After three years of planning, and ten years 

 of very strenuous work, we say that the Zoo- 

 logical Park is "practically complete :" and so 



