KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 
THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 
The National Zoological Park continues in popularity as a means 
of natural history education and as a place of recreation and amuse- 
ment for the people of Washington. 
The total number of animals in the park at the close of the fiscal 
year was 1,336, including 528 mammals, 71 reptiles, and 737 birds. 
Among the more important additions were two young Sumatran 
elephants, purchased at a cost of $5,000, for the children of Wash- 
ington by a number of their friends and donated to the institution. 
At the time of their arrival they were about 2^ years old and were the 
first of their kind to be exhibited in Washington. Other important 
additions were a fine capybara, from the Hon. Henry D. Baker, 
Trinidad, British West Indies; a great white heron of southern 
Florida, from Dr. Paul Bartsch; and a pair of Florida bears from 
Mrs. A. V. N. Stroop. 
Visitors to the park during the year numbered 1,964,715 — a daily 
average of 5,383. Ninety-eight schools and classes visited the col- 
lection for instruction purposes. 
Among the recent improvements are exterior cages for leopards, 
jaguars, and hyenas, and a new chimney for the central heating 
plant. A part of the creek-side drive was rebuilt, some animal 
houses were painted, and small improvements in the animal houses 
and yards were likewise effected. 
The need of a new house for the exhibition of birds continues to 
become more urgent from year to year. An increased appropriation 
for the expenses of the park is also badly needed, as well as one 
sufficient for the purchase and transportation of animals, so that the 
park may take advantage from time to time of opportunities to 
obtain rare and conspicuous animals not before exhibited. The 
purchase of a frontage of over 600 feet on Connecticut Avenue, 
urged for several years by the superintendent, but which has not 
yet been considered favorably by Congress, would satisfy all the 
needs of the park as regards necessary expansion and better service 
to the public on the west side; and it becomes more and more im- 
portant to secure this land, as the probability of losing the oppor- 
tunity increases every year. It is also desirable to purchase a small 
strip of privately owned land between the park and the important 
highway of Adams Mill Road, because of improvements being made 
at that point by the District government. The incorporation of 
this land within the park is of very great interest to the public. 
The slight increase in the annual appropriation granted by Con- 
gress scarcely more than covered the increased cost of maintenance 
of the park, even by practicing the strictest economy. Lack of 
funds for grading banks and filling ravines has prevented the com- 
