PREFACE 
T HE object of this book is to enable the visitor to make an 
intelligent tour of the Zoological Garden, and to impart 
interesting information concerning the animal and bird collections 
and other features therein contained. Preliminary to a consider¬ 
ation of the various departments, a few observations on Zoology 
are presented. Phe description of the Garden, as now constituted, 
then follows, taking up each house and enclosure separately. Phis 
method, it is believed, is less confusing to the visitor than an attempt 
to describe the specimens under a Zoological outline. Phe reason for 
this is that it is often necessary, for economic or other prudential 
reasons, to place specimens in one department that naturally belong 
in another. Phus departments are constantly overlapping and do 
not conform to the departments of an outline of Zoology. But the 
student of Zoology will be in no danger of losing his way on this 
account. Phis guide locates the specimens in the various buildings 
and enclosures, and in the pursuit of the systematic study of 
Zoology the student can go from department to department, guide¬ 
book in hand, and easily find that for which he seeks, classifying 
his observations as he goes. 
Of course, in a book like this, it is not possible to be minutely 
descriptive, and so the author has aimed to tell as simply as 
possible what the attractions of the Garden are and where they may 
be found, and give a description on a scientific basis, of the 
character and habits of many animals, birds and reptiles, with the 
hope that something may be found within the covers of the volume 
that will inspire more than one visitor to take up the careful study 
of Zoology — a branch of science not only extremely interesting, 
but one of the most useful, as its study trains to habits of close 
observation and brings us “near to Nature's heart." 
A brief history of the Zoological Garden from its opening in 
