108 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
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OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY 
<IA PUBLIC ZOOLOGICAL PARK. flA PUBLIC AQUA¬ 
RIUM. <| THE PRESERVATION OF OUR NATIVE 
ANIMALS. QTHE PROMOTION OF ZOOLOGY. 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
Published bi-monthly at the Office of the Society, 
111 Broadway, New York City. 
Copy , 25 Cents Yearly , $1.50 
MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS 
Sl'BSCRIPTION AND EDITORIAL OFFICES 
ZOOLOGICAL PARK, NEW YORK CITY 
Elwin R. Sanborn, Editor 
Copyright, 1923, oy the New York Zoological Society 
SrjiartmrntB: 
Mammals Aquarium 
William T. Hornaday Charles H. Townsend 
Birds Reptiles 
Lee S. Crandall. Raymond L. Ditmars. 
William Beebe. 
Director of Tropical Research ancl Honorary Curator. Birds 
Each author is resDonsible for the scientific accuracy and 
the proof reading of his contribution. 
Vol. XXVI September, 1923 No. 5 
FOUNDING THE NATIONAL ZOOLOG¬ 
ICAL PARK OF MEXICO 
By William T. Hornaday. 
The first real menagerie of miscellaneous 
wild animals ever brought together in the 
western hemisphere, so far as historic records 
avail us, was that of the enlightened Aztec, 
King Montezuma, and its abiding place was 
the ancient capital of Mexico, known as An- 
ahuac. Indeed, if speaking legally, “according 
to the best of our information and belief,” 
we might go farther and say that it antedated 
by more than two centuries the founding of the 
first zoological garden nucleus in Europe, 
which was at Paris, and known as the Jardine 
du Roi, born about 1792. 
This is the description of historian De Solis 
(1724) of the zoo that Cortez found in the 
environs of Montezuma’s palace, where the 
great American bison was first seen by Euro¬ 
peans. 
“In the second Square of the same House 
were the Wild Beasts, which were either pres¬ 
ents to Montezuma or taken by his Hunters, in 
strong Cages of Timber, rang’d in good Order, 
and under Cover; Lions, Tygers, Bears and all 
others of the savage kind which New-Spain 
produced; among which the greatest Rarity was 
the Mexican Bull; a wonderful composition of 
divers Animals. It has crooked Shoulders, with 
a Hunch on its Back like a Camel; its Flanks 
dry, its Tail large, and its Neck covered with 
Hair like a Lion. It is cloven footed; its Head 
armed like that of a Bull, which it resembles 
in Fierceness, with no less strength and Agility.” 
On July 6, 1923, with solemn and appropriate 
ceremony, there was laid in the Park of Chepult- 
apec. City of Mexico, the first stone of the 
new National Zoological Park of the Republic 
of Mexico. And here do we record once more 
the fact that in the building of cities, states 
and nations the creation of a real zoological 
park or garden represents the high water mark 
of enlightenment and progress. 
In November, 1915, the Constitutionalist 
Government of Mexico announced that it had 
established in the Department of Fomento “a 
very important institution named the Institute 
of Biological Studies,” consisting of three de¬ 
partments. These were: 
I. The Institute of General and Medical 
Biolog}'. 
II. The National Museum of National 
History, and 
III. The Administrative Section. 
To the National Museum was assigned the 
duty of creating a zoological garden and 
aquarium, and a botanical garden. After long 
and careful studies of the whole question, cul¬ 
minating in the preparation and adoption of an 
excellent general plan of development, the 
cornerstone of the new National Zoological 
Park and Aquarium of the Republic of Mexico 
was well and truly laid on July 6, 1923, in 
the presence of an assemblage of government 
officials and citizens specially interested in the 
new development. The ceremony took place 
under the direction of Senor Ing. Joaquin P. 
Cordova, Assistant Secretary, as the official 
representative of Senor Don Ramon P. de 
Negri, Secretary of Agriculture and Fomento. 
That ceremony, however, relates solely to 
the development of the new institution, on an 
appropriate and ample site in the Forest Park 
of Chepultapee, which will also contain in close 
proximity the Aquarium and Botanical Garden. 
The presiding genius of the Department of 
Biological Studies is its Director, Professor 
