58 !) 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
I 
A REMARKABLE PARK BIRD EXHIBIT 
KXTERIOR VIEW OF HUGE BIRD CAGE. 
Forest Park, St. Louis. 
The St. Louis park department is 
gradually stocking up the great bird 
cage left by the federal government 
when its world’s fair bird exhibit was 
removed after the fair. The city ac- 
quired the cage from the government 
and the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion Company and has tnaintained it 
;is one of the features of the zoo in 
Forest Park. There are now about 67 
different varieties of rare birds in the 
cage, the total number being aligut 
300. 
That sounds like a lot of birds for 
one cage, and it will sound even 
bigger when it is said that nearly all 
of the birds are big ones, stork, 
grouse, cranes and other bigger and 
rarer birds. But the cage is equal to 
its task, being 250 feet long by 100 
feet wide and 75 feet high. It is a 
reproduction of the big cage main- 
tained by the federal government at 
Washington, though 50 feet shorter. 
The Washington cage was modeled 
after the great Vienna cage. The 
ca.ge is so hig that trees grow inside 
of it. 
A few months ago the Million Pop- 
ulation Club of St. Louis took up a 
movement for a big zoo in Forest 
Park, to be maintained by the city. 
At the present time the zoo is not ex- 
tensive, though the collection of ani- 
mals includes a herd of deer, of elk 
and of buffalo, several bears and a 
dozen lesser animals. The boosters 
of a bigger zoo w'ant a big building 
in the park and an appropriation suffi- 
cient to maintain it and buy animals. 
A number of animals have been pre- 
sented since the movement started, 
and the collection is growing, but 
city officials now are unwilling to set 
aside additional funds for that pur- 
pose. 
Only a shelter is provided for the 
grazing animals, with fenced off res- 
ervations in the big park, but a build- 
ing of masonry and bars has been 
erected for bears. The bird cage is 
the most interesting of any of the 
liuildings. 
It i^ built entirely of steel and one- 
half inch wire mesh. The foundation, 
steps, basement, etc., are of concrete. 
The cost was about $10,000. Inside 
the cage on each side of the big divid- 
ing corridor, is a row of lakes, fed at 
the higher end from city water main'^ 
and draining through to a sewer at 
the lower end. 
The storage room and big basement 
where heat is provided by a furnace 
IN THE AQUATIC SECTION. 
St. Louis Park Bird Cage. 
for the tropical birds, is at the west 
end of the cage and extends around 
the circular end, fifteen to twenty 
feet wide and about 100 feet long. 
Some of the tropical birds, including 
the stork, had to be confined in coops 
in the basement all winter, for they 
would have frozen if allowed to go 
out with the other birds. Several 
other varieties had to have a little 
heat, but did not need as much as 
the stork and were allowed to occupy 
one end of the basement which was 
only partly heated. 
A caretaker is maintained at the 
cage all the year around, who feeds 
ind takes care of the birds. Feed is 
VIEW IN THE CORRIDOR OF ST. LOUIS BIRD CAGE. 
