345 
of the dens contain living trees, carefully 
protected from injury, and 2 have trees 
specially introduced to furnish exercise 
for bears that love to climb. The dens 
are all open yards, the floors are on a 
level with the ground, and every semblance 
to the old-fashioned bear-pit has been 
studiously avoided. There is an abundance 
of shade, shelter, fresh water and facilities 
for exercise, and any bear which could not 
be happy in these splendid dens would 
deserve to be shot. At present the only 
occupants of the 4 dens just completed are 
two immense polar bears, from Carl Hag- 

enbeck’s great Thierpark at Hamburg, the 
largest Florida black bear ever Seennura 
young black bear from the Adirondacks, 
a grizzly bear presented by the Engineers’ 
Club, of New York City, and 2 cinna- 
mon bears collected in Colorado Dyaelen@ = 
fessor Osborn. The society wants a Cali- 
fornia grizzly, a Kadiak brown bear, and, 
in fact, all other species found in America. 
The reptile house must be seen to be ap- 
preciated. It is not boasting, but merely 
stating a cold fact, to say that it is by far 
the finest building of its kind in the world. 
In materials (cut stone and brick) and 
RECREATION. 
appointments throughout it is as fine as 
an art gallery, and its long rows of cases 
full of living reptiles are a revelation to 
everybody. It is a museum of living rep- 
tiles—serpents of all sizes, huge alliga- 
tors and crocodiles, 30 species of turtles 
and terrapins, and lizards, batrachians and 
iguanas almost without number. The cases 
are large and roomy, bottomed with white 
gravel which keeps the snakes very clean 
and healthy, and living plants and rocks 
are introduced liberally. 
One end of the vast central hall has been 
given up to the pool and sand banks for 
AMATEUR PHOTO BY G E£,. STONEBRIDGE. 
GREAT FLYING CAGE, 152 FT. LONG, 72 FT. WIDE, 55 FT. HIGH. 
the. alligators, and for a background there 
appears a mass of tropical plants, chiefly 
from the home of the alligator—Florida. 
The most conspicuous feature of the leafy 
background is a live-oak tree, loaded 
with resurrection ferns and tillandsias, just 
as they grow in Florida. The largest alli- 
gator of the 5 in the pool is 13 feet in 
length. Although he looks savage, he is 
really very good natured, and never has 
attempted to bite any of his keepers. All 
the alligators eat voraciously, and are as 
fat and round as they used to be in the 
South when ducks were plentiful, 


