KEi'B LiULLETM OF' THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



THE NEW YOEK ZOOLOGICAL PAEK. 



To the average American who finds his recreations in 

 his own country, the number, popularity, and elegance of 

 the zoological gardens of Europe are almost, beyond belief. 

 The American Who does visit Europe, however, and is 

 beguiled into visiting all the zoological gardens thai lie in 

 his path, soon finds himself a prey to a curious succession 

 of emotions. 



At London, which is the best place to begin, he is hon- 

 id openly delighted with the bewildering array of 

 living creatures. There are sixty different collections, 

 representing nearly every country on the globe, and the 

 specimens to be seen are so great in number, so rare and 

 interesting, so well housed, and so comfortable that it is a 

 matter of'days, not hours, to see everything. He heartily 

 congratulates the mother-country on the possession of the 

 richest and most productive zoological society, and the 

 richest series of living animals to be found in all the 

 world — and passes on. 



At Antwerp he is at first fairly dazed by the beauty of 



respect as are the cities of Germany, for example, we 



would have in New York city one of the finest gardens in 

 the world, there would be another in Brooklyn, Newark 

 would have one, and so would Harrisburg, Baltimore, 

 Hartford, New Haven, Providence, Springfield, Bridge- 

 port, and Boston. 



It is not necessary to point out one. by one the ways in 

 which a great collection of living animals, comfortably 

 housed and fully labelled, yields both pleasure and benefit 

 to the people. Even intelligent savages arc animated by 

 a desire to know personally the living creatures that 

 share with us the possession of the earth. The people of 

 western Europe, who move through life less rapidly than 

 we do, have taken time to consider the solid, healthful ben- 

 efits and influences for good that, emanate from every zoo- 

 logical garden ; and the result we know. But in rushing, 

 noisy New York, with its superabundance of haste and 

 its lack of repose and reslfulness, may now be seen the 

 strange spectacle of a society of public-spirited men, who 

 individually have nothing whatever to gain save the satis- 

 faction that comes from the doing of a good thing, actually 



sons are there in New York city who can, without special 

 preparation, sit down and write correctly, in the order of 

 their size, the names of the ten largest, species of hoofed 

 animals in North America? Tin-, average man knows that 

 we have at least two species of squirrels, but beyond that 

 all is mystery. And yet Ave have the richest and most 

 varied "line*" of rodeuts to be found on any one con- 

 tinent. 



If we have here a zoological park, it will contain a 

 collection of North American squirrels and burrowing 

 rodents, and hares and rabbits, living actually in a 

 of nature, in trees and meadows all their own, which will 

 really be something new under the sun. 



If 'human knowledge can bring it to pass, there will be 

 collections of North American game-birds, both of the 

 land and water, such as have never yet been seen in a zoo- 

 logical garden. There will be a reptile-house, and a col- 

 lection of serpents, saurians, and other reptiles which will 

 at least strive to rival that admirable feature in the gar- 

 dens of the London Zoological Society, If we do not have 

 a collection of eagles, hawks, owls, and vultures that w ill 



gardens of the Royal Zoological Society of An 

 that is — stunning! No wonder the society uu 

 members, and has " money to burn "! Ev- 

 ery afternoon and evening in pleasant 

 weather the gardens are the grand centre 

 of attraction to the best people of Ant- 

 werp. If New York city possessed a 

 duplicate of that zoological garden, the 

 price of a kingdom could not buy it, nor 

 could all the legislative power of the 

 Empire State ever despoil it of a single 

 brick or bar. 



Rotterdam is only two hours distant, 

 and the visitor to its zoological garden 

 is charmed afresh by entirely new fea- 

 tures, one of which is the very pictu- 

 resque lake that has been made for the 

 landscape — and the ducks. In the tall 

 trees that surround the huge flying-cage 

 — the first one built in Europe — mid 

 herons are nesting and rearing their 

 young ! And as the American visitor 

 looks at this novel sight, and at the gor- 

 geous flamingoes and scarlet ibises, and 

 the snow-white herons aud egrets and 

 storks, wheeling and circling in the top 

 of their monster cage, he is sensible of a 

 distinct feeling of envy and regret. 



At Amsterdam, where he enters an 



id dollars— with the" certain prospect of their eventually 

 5000 spending much more than that— our prospect for a park is 





BRONX? 



Biaek-ta 

 Deer 



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h of Europe) Caribj 



''hjAi'ittnj 



1 1 Flying Cage 



jhvBlrd House 



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fpLionl 



| Moose 

 Nortliern // 



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\Play Grounds 

 H a* fit 



ul, be thai as il may, there is no reason whj zoological 

 garden labels should not be far more complete, more 

 interesting, and more valuable to the 

 public than they have ever yet beeu 

 made. 



The zoological park is to be open free 

 to the public at least five days of each 

 week, and wide open on every Sunday 

 and holiday. It will be quickly accessi- 

 ble, and for a very low fare, from several 

 directions, and by several lines. Its many 

 collections will entertain and instruct, its 

 great play-ground will furnish delight to 

 throngs of little people, and its quiet, rest- 

 ful woods and picturesque water -sides 

 will be to the tired and nervous business 

 man more restful aud soothing than any 

 other spot within easy reach of Greater 

 New York. 



Stated briefly, the Zoological Society 

 offers to plan the zoological park, to spend 

 $250,000 in the erection of buildings, avia- 

 ries and cages, and in the purchase of col- 

 lections with which to fill them. It will 

 also be responsible for the successful 

 management of the institution it creates. 

 All this it will do if the city will allow a 

 portion of Bronx Park to "be thus pub- 

 licly dedicated to zoology, and will main- 



em v^ This 

 zoological society also has a membership 

 of over 4000, and seemingly possesses all 

 the various kiuds of wild animals that 

 money can buy. But how do they keep 

 everything in such fine condition? A 

 few leading questions easily reveal the 

 secret— rigid adherence to the merit sys- 

 tem in the selection and pay of keepers 

 and helpers. 



In Hamburg there is still another nov- 

 elty—a zoological garden with a beauti- 

 fully undulating surface, and the shade 

 trees all disposed according to order. 

 There is still the same succession of 

 broad and smooth shaded walks, shaded 

 yards, exquisite landscape effects, fine 

 buildings, and mountains of masonry, in- 

 habited by fine animals in a state of ab- 

 solute cleanliness. This high degree of 

 excellence is really becoming monotonous. 

 Not a poor or ill-kept garden has been 



American Bison 



Jack Rabbit 

 Prairie $p?.rmophi!e 



fn 



REFERENCE FOR NUMBERS 

 1. Elephant Souse :_Tapir, i. Burrowing Rodents 



Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros 

 2. Library and Offices 

 3 . Winter Ho use for 

 aquatic birds 



5. Eagles Aviary 

 G.Upland game birds 

 ?. Pheasants Aviary 



200 400 000 



THE PROPOSED PLAN FOR THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



"waniS/soSheasf 11 " ^ ^ ^^ ^ ° n fright. The Zoological Society's offer is, beyond *rt^*UJ$^£^t^l^£^ 

 *^^f_ S ?r?_ eaSt '. __ ., . , ™ question, the most liberal offer ever made to the citv of addresses of a rnnnUtZ ™,,^;„„ Anho " 1, ,. nes . 



toward the southeast. 



At Berlin he traverses the vast Thierpark, which, like 

 Napoleon, is "grand, gloomy, and peculiar," and enters 

 the zoological garden. But it is only to find grounds that 

 are the most spacious he has yet seen (more than sixty 

 ""', most ' 



./ O . -*- "~ *.yv, u&i ^ m KJ>J\sL\jVJ o uutl lo, UCJU11U 



question, the most liberal offer ever made to the city of 

 New Y r ork by an educational body. 

 The idea animating the New York Zoological Society is 



year by the Amerk i 

 History and the Museum of Art— for the 

 increase of the collections, for courses of 

 public lectures, and for facilitating the 

 work of animal-painters and zoological 

 students. It is the intention of the so- 

 ciety to do more for the promotion of 

 animal painting and sculpture than has 

 ever been done heretofore in any similar 

 institution. 



The proposition means more to the 

 people of Greater New York and the 

 Empire State than the general public 

 has yet even begun to realize. The pro- 

 position is really of national importance, 

 and thus far it is absolutely without an 

 enemy or a detractor. It has received, 

 at the hands of the two municipal com- 

 missions most concerned, the investigation 

 and Careful consideration that every great 

 public enterprise should receive "before 



addresses of a committee representing 5000 members of 



the Tax -Payers' Alliance, who urged that the society's 



i offer be accepted without delav declared himself as heart- 



distinctly different from that which yields the typical ily in favor of the proposition 7 ' He a ed t aft e Sin - 



™l!,filf 1 ' deU - ^^i; "sually means about thirty ing-Fund Commission is only waiting for the society to 



ed ground, in se^Ule the details of its plan with the Board of Park 



and finer 

 garden. 



This is really the last straw.' Our American turns at 

 bay and indignantly exclaims: "Why should the cities 

 of Europe have all these things— beautiful gardens and 

 beautiful animals every where— and we have none of them? 

 It isn't fair !" 



And this before even setting foot in the charming 

 gardens of Hanover, Frankfort, and Cologne. There is 

 no speculation in regard to what I have written; for quite 

 recently I took to Europe with me a patriotic American 

 in order to study "The Effects of European Zoological 

 Gardens on the American Mind." 



And really, is it not good cause for envy that in Ger- 

 many, Holland, Belgium, and France nearly every place 

 calling itself a city possesses a good zoological garden, and 

 some of those that are surpassingly fine are only a very 

 few hours apart? 



Their number and their magnificence are incontestable 

 proof of their value to the public and of their popu- 

 larity. If our Eastern cities were as well provided in this 



species will be far more generous than has ever before 

 been attempted in a public park or garden. Instead of 

 parcelling out square rods of ground to the deer, the elk, 

 moose, bison, and their congeners, each of those species 

 will receive an allotment of acres. Instead of showing 

 one lonesome beaver in a cage of iron and concrete, ten 

 by fifteen feet, it is proposed to give that very interesting 

 species a quiet pond of an acre in extent, wherein a whole 

 colony can build and maintain their own dam, and carry 

 on their logging operations almost as freely as if they 

 were in the Yellowstone Park. For the collections of 

 apes and monkeys, something is proposed which we be- 

 lieve has never yet been seen in a zoological garden. For 

 the lions and tigers, and their kindred, there will be cage 

 developments of a nature that will surely make those crea- 

 tures more interesting and more instructive to the visitor 

 than any to be found elsewhere. 



It is to be feared that the people of the Eastern United 

 States are beginning to forget that North America has a 

 rich and extensive mammalian fauna. How many per- 

 From Harper's Weekly. Copyright, 1897, by Harper & Brothers. 



society, is only a question of days. The society seeks no 

 personal or selfish ends. It only asks the privilege of 

 building up the new zoological park on lines which 

 will insure the entire success of its expenditure aud its 

 w r ork. 



If half the plans of the New York Zoological Society 

 are realized, New York's great zoological park will be the 

 most popular resort open to the public within fifty miles 

 of the metropolis ; and it will also be the pride and boast 

 of the chief city of the American continent, and of the 

 whole Empire State as well. 



The society invites every reader of Harper's Weekly 

 who is interested in the creation of a zoological park in 

 New York city, in the preservation of our native fauna, 

 in the promotion of zoology, and in the painting and 

 sculpture of animals, to become a member of the organi- 

 zation. If the work of the society is sustained bv a large 

 membership, results of much importance to all lovers of 

 animated nature will be achieved. 



William T. Hornaday. 



