Sis 
their demeanor from their younger relatives. All these 
cubs, of course, still bear the spots with which young 
lions are always marked, and which indeed may be 
noticed on the young Senegal lioness about two j^ears 
old here on exhibition, and on one of the breeding 
females. The lions are all particularly fat and sleek, 
and seem to be in the very pink of condition. The 
large male tiger Rajah, which, with hig mate, was pre- 
sented to the society by Mr. Ghas. T. Barney, is, on 
the other hand, thin in flesh, and his hindquarters seem 
to lack muscular development, 'ilie opening of the 
outside cages — ^which are not yet completed — will un- 
li 
1 
doubtedly be of great benefit to all these cats, by giv- 
ing them more range and opportunity for exercise. 
Besides the lions and tigers, there are the male 
jaguar, which killed the female when they were intro- 
duced to each other some months ago; a number of 
. leopards, including a pair of black ones, and one cou- 
gar, or mountain lion. 
It is remembered that in the lion house a large room 
has been set aside as a studio, for the use of artists 
who may desire to work on animals. This room has 
been fitted up in accordance with the suggestions made 
by a committee of artists, but precisely how satisfac- 
tory it will prove cannot as yet he Raid. 
Of the animals recently received at the society's park 
I'.irhaps the most interesting are the two Przewalsky 
isorses, which, it will be remembered, many naturalists 
i«lieve to be the nearest living relative of the do- 
^fiestic horse, and perhaps its ancestor. They are ex- 
ceedingly horselike in character, and those at the park 
—now two years old — are about the size of yearling 
ladian ponies, or perhaps a little larger. They are 
lan or buckskin in color, with blackish manes and 
tails, and have a brown or bay dorsal_ stripe. Of the 
:<-o, the female is the larger. They give one the im- 
pression of great endurance and possibly some speed. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
In England it has quite generally been believed that 
Przewalsky's horse is a hybrid- — a cross between a pony 
and a certain Asiatic wild ass known as Kiang — and the 
question has excited much interest and been much de- 
bated by British zoologists. Recent experiments by Prof. 
J. C. Ewart seem to show that this animal has no close 
relation to the wild asses, and is, in fact, a true horse. 
In his paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
last June, Prof. Ewart says: "Granting Przewalsky's 
horse is a true wild horse, the question arises : In what 
way, if any, is it related to our domestic horses? It is 
still too soon to answer this questiDti; but I venture to 
think that should we by and by arrive at the conclusion 
that our domestic horses have had a multiple origin — 
have sprung from at least two perfectly distinct sources — 
we shall probably subsequently come to the further con- 
clusion that our big-headed, big-jointed horses, with well 
marked chestnuts (callosities) on the hind legs, are more 
intimately related to the wild horse than the small- 
headed, slender-limbed varieties without chestnuts on the 
hind legs; that, in fact, the heavy horses, whether found 
in Europe, Asia or Africa, and Przewalsky's horse have 
.sprung from the same ancestors." 
Two fine specimens of Crawshay's zebra, imported 
from the Kilimanjaro district of German East Africa 
by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, and now four years old. have 
recently been received at the park. This species is a 
form of Burchell's zebra, and is one of the largest and 
handsomest of the zebras. It closely resembles the 
rare mountain zebra of South Africa, being very broad- 
ly striped. 
It used to be said that the zebras were all untamable, 
but this statement v/as long ago shown not to be true. 
Zebras have frequently been broken to work, and have 
often been bred in confinement, and it seems rather 
extraordinary that, in view of the numbers of these 
animals in South Africa, and their immunity from 
[Sept. 19, 190.^ 
death by the bite of the tsetse fly, which is so certainly 
destructive to horses and cattle, the zebra has never 
been domesticated and reared for commercial pur- 
poses. 
The type species of the Burchell zebra lorm is re- 
ported as probably now extinct, and since in Africa 
these wild equines are commonly regarded as game, 
there seems every likelihood that as the country settles 
up other species will disappear. 
The zebras are tremendously stout and sturdy beasts, 
and seem to be thriving under the conditions of the 
park. Both the horses and the zebras are kept in 
small stone or gravel paved paddocks, where no grass 
grows, and are fed on dry hay. This seems to nave 
been found necessary on account of the deplorable 
experience had with some of the herbivorous animals, 
which appear to have found among pasturage of the 
park the germs of disease which has carried off many 
of them. The buflalo, the caribou, the moose, and 
mule deer have all of them suffered from this cause, 
and the difficulties which have attended keeping the 
society's herd of antelope alive are well remembered. 
Happily the society has secured the services of Dr. 
Harlow Brooks, eminent as a pathologist; Mr. Frank 
H. Miller, veterinarian, and Dr. W. Reid Blair, D.V.S., 
whose examinations of sick and dead animals cannot 
fail to be of the greatest use not only to the New York 
Zoological Society, but to all other zoological gardens. 
While on many accounts the summer is a delightful 
time to visit the Zoological Park, yet it is not the time 
for seeing the animals in their best condition. The 
birds are moulting, many of the highly colored males 
of the duck family have assumed the plumage of late 
summer, while animals which in winter commonly bear 
heavy coats are now likely to be ragged, and not to 
show up at their best. On the other hand, the young 
animals which were born in the spring have now at- 
tained a considerable growth, and are, for the most 
part, on view, forming interesting family groups. In 
the park, for example, at the present time there are 
besides the farnilies of lion cubs, two of wolves, two of 
coyotes, some young deer, antelope, fallow deer, wild 
sheep from the Punjab, aoudad, some yoimg rodents 
and a number of wild geese and ducks. 
The constantly growing popularity of the Society's 
park is indicated by the attendance for the present year 
which shows, during the five months from January to 
May inclusive, an increase of 2GO,cco o.- almost doLibl:! 
the number of visitors during the same period in the 
year 1902. 
The last — seventh — annual report of the Society re- 
cently issued is a handsome illustrated volume of 205 
pages. It contains a great amount of interesting infor- 
mation, some of which — Mr. Madison Grant's article on 
the caribou, for example — has already been referred to 
in these columns. The reports of the various officials 
of the Society take up the most of the volume, and 
there is an extremely interesting article entitled "In 
the Home of the Giant Tortoise," by Mr. R. H. Beck, 
which will repay reading. In the report of Mr, Ray- 
mond L. Ditmars, Curator of Reptiles, is mentioned 
an observation which corrects an erroneous idea long 
prevalent. It has been believed that alligators grow 
very slowly; Dr. Hugh M. Smith, of the United States 
Fish Commission, having said in a recent work, "Alli- 
gators grow very slowly. At 15 years of age they are 
only two feet long. A 12-footer may be reasonably 
supposed to be 75 years of age." In October, 1900, five 
young alligators were hatched in the reptile house of 
the Zoological Society, at which time they measured 
eight inches in length and each weighed ounces. 
A year later they were again measured and found to 
rveragc 18 inches in length and to weigh g%. ounces, 
vA ile in August, 1902, they averaged 23 inches and 
weighed three pounds each, and on March 5, 1903, they 
averaged three feet nine inches in length and weighed 
14 pounds. Mr. Ditmars believes that the growth of 
wild alligators must be fully as rapid. 
While the growth of the young crocodilians in cap- 
tivity is seen to be very rapid, the larger alligators also 
grow more rapidly than would have been supposed. 
The great specimen named Mose has grown five inches, 
since his arrival at the park in July, 1899. Another 
specimen which measures at the present time 10 feet 
and II inches, grew during the first year in the park 
15 inches in length, during its second year i^yi inches, 
: nd during the last year 19^ inches. Mr. Ditmars 
notes other interesting observations on reptiles. 
The paper by Mr. C. Wm. Beebe, Curator of Birds, 
treats entertainingly of the psychology of birds, and 
gives interesting examples of the relations existing 
Lit'lween the tame birds in the park and the wild ones 
A. l.ich approach it in migrations. 
The New York Zoological Society, though in a most 
I'onrishing condition, greatly needs additional mem- 
1 rrs; Annual membership entails an expense of $10 a 
ye"", in return for which are to be had all the privileges 
o: ilie Society, including admission to the park on pay 
days, all the publications of the Society, admission 
tickets for friends, and the use of the adinjiiatration! 
building — after that shall have been erected. Every 
citizen of New Y^ork, or New Y^ork's vicinity, who can 
.■afford it, should be a member of the Society, and 
should frequently visit its park and the aquarium, 
AvLich within the year has come under the charge of 
the New York Zoological Society. 
An Early Description of Texas Buffalo. 
One of the very earli'est descriptions of the Texas buf- 
falo is contained in the journal of Fernando del Bosque, 
under date of May 14, 1675 : 
"We started, having with us the Indians of the Yoricas 
and Jeapes, already mentioned, and traveled from the 
place called San Gregorio Nasianseno for about three 
leagues toward the north. We reached a watering place 
in a plain without other trees than mesquite. 
"On the same day and in said province and place 
called San Bisente Ferrer, the Indians and Spaniards 
killed two buffalo for our people to eat; the form of 
these animals is very ugly; they resemble bulls and cows; 
the skin is covered with wool; their shoulders are high,, 
which makes them look humpbacked; they have a short- 
CRAWSHAY S ZEBRAS. 
By permission N. Y. Zoological Society. 
BENGAL TIGER RAJAH. 
By permission N. Y. Zoological Society. 
