Sept. 16, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
455 
At the New York Zoological Park. 
A visit to the New York Zoological Park in 
the very first days of September cannot fail to 
give great pleasure to every lover of outdoor 
life. Whether he cares for big game or small, 
for birds, mammals or reptiles, he is certain to 
see there much that will interest him, and to 
see besides a well kept zoological park—the 
largest of its kind in the world. 
Although by the calendar autumn has begun, 
the foliage shows nothing of this. The grass is 
as fresh and green as that of June, the frondage 
of the great trees or the smaller shrubs is 
free from dust—washed clean by the heavy rains 
—the mammals are beginning to assume their 
autumn coats, but the wildfowl still wear their 
summer plumage. 
In the buffalo pasture great bulls, matronly 
cows and young stock drowse in the sun, or if 
occasionally some of them stand up and walk 
about a few steps, they are likely before lying 
down to throw themselves on the ground and 
roll, tossing up great clouds of dust. The elk 
and the deer have completed the growing of 
their horns and have stripped the velvet from 
them, but shreds of it still hang about their 
heads. Their coats are smooth and sleek and 
shine in the sun. 
In many of the paddocks young animals are 
seen; buffalo calves now nearly as dark as their 
parents; young elk, some of them still showing 
the spots of the first pelage, a little mountain 
goat, strong and sturdy; a little muflon; a young 
tahr, extraordinary beast of the rocks; and per¬ 
haps most interesting of all, a little zebra colt. 
This little animal was born in mid July of a pair 
of Grant zebras, which spend all their time out 
of doors with no artificial heat, though they 
have a sunny room to which they may re¬ 
tire in winter, and to which in fact they are 
confined during the severest cold. They are 
never exposed to artificial heat, however. 
Among the new and strange small mammals 
that have recently been obtained is a specimen 
of the panda, which comes from the southeast¬ 
ern Himalayas. This animal is about the size 
and shape of a marten and perhaps its nearest 
relations are the raccoons, although some 
naturalists believe that it is closer to the bears. 
It is certainly worth seeing. Other new ac¬ 
quisitions are two large wombats. These, though 
belonging to the same great group as the 
opossums, are very little like them. The 
wombat looks somewhat like a woodchuck, but 
is many times as large, being about the size of 
a peccary, though, of course, with very short 
legs. In the small mammal house is also a 
specimen of the Tasmanian Devil, said to be 
one of the most ferocious of animals, though 
quite a small one. Two odd animals—mere 
freaks—are an albino coyote and an albino 
raccoon. 
The little walrus, which has now been in 
the Park for about a year, seems to be doing 
well. To the eye he is much larger than he was, 
and scales confirm the eye, for they show that 
he has increased in weight about eighty pounds 
since his arrival. When the walrus first came 
he ate nine pounds of clams daily, but his 
present allowance is three times that. He is 
fed three times a day a meal of clams. After 
two days of this, he receives two meals of cod¬ 
fish—from which the bones have been removed 
—and one of clams each day, for two successive 
days. The walrus is of course a marine animal, 
living in salt water, and this is supplied to the 
Zoological Society’s little animal. A supply of 
Turk’s Island evaporated sea salt has been put in 
the walrus’ pool and the water brought to the 
same density as ocean water. As soon as this 
was done a great change took place in the ani¬ 
mal’s health. He seems greaty to enjoy his 
baths, and he is free from the attacks of flies 
and other insects, which last summer caused 
him great annoyance. 
One of the most famous beasts in the Park is 
the great polar bear, captured a year ago by 
the Rainey-Whitney expedition. His condition 
is excellent, and his fur is beautiful and white. 
He has a swimming pool and a cage much 
larger than most animal cages. 
The recently published Zoological Bulletin 
has this to say about the severely hot weather 
of last summer and its effect on the condition 
of the animals in confinement there: “During 
that period nearly every living creature east of 
the Rocky Mountains—man, beast and bird— 
suffered discomfort, and many people died from 
heat distresses. Although we were very anxious 
about our animals, the death rate was sensibly 
increased by the heat only to the extent of three 
or four crocodilians that actually died in and 
around their pool from the heat. * * * The 
herds of muskox and mountain goat endured 
the weather quite as well as any other of the 
large animals and without any sickness or fatal¬ 
ity. On the whole the animals seemed to be 
quite as comfortable as the visitors, and there 
was no noticeable increase in the death rate.” 
It is noted that the two Siberian tigers in con¬ 
finement here exhibit a trait unusual in cats, 
and frequently go into the water. The male 
often goes into the pool, lies down in the water, 
drops his meat and then puts his head under 
and gets it. No one as yet knows just what 
these tigers will develop into, but these great 
northern tigers—commonly called Manchurian 
—are likely to be enormous animals. 
The work of breeding wild animals in confine¬ 
ment is being carried on with constantly increas¬ 
ing success here, and that it is so successful is 
the best possible testimony to the admirable con¬ 
dition of the collections. 
Among the interesting births at the Zoolog¬ 
ical Park are forty-eight anacondas, born from 
a great snake which arrived here from the 
Island of Trinidad about four months ago. 
These young snakes are more than three feet 
long and seem to be doing well. 
The authorities of the Park have at last suc¬ 
ceeded in keeping and breeding the blacktail 
and the mule deer; something which at one time 
they quite despaired of doing. 
Tn these balmy days of early autumn great 
crowds of people visit the Zoological Park and 
gather with especial interest about the bear 
dens, the monkey house and the lion house. 
The beasts and the birds give unending pleasure 
to young and old. 
Red Squirrel in a Lake. 
Stamford, Conn., Sept. 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Last week while fishing on Byram 
Lake, in Westchester county, New York, with 
a friend, I saw a rather unusual sight, and am 
wondering if this little incident shows a char¬ 
acteristic unfamiliar to many of us. 
We were rowing down the lake when I saw 
an animal swimming on the surface of the water 
and which I took to be a mink. When we got 
closer, instead of diving it continued on its 
course and we found it to be a large red squir¬ 
rel. It had evidently started from the woods on 
the further side and was making for the meadow 
opposite and swam as naturally and easily as if 
that was its usual mode of getting about. Its 
back was perfectly dry and its handsome red 
tail floated lightly on behind, leading me to be¬ 
lieve that the animal had taken to the water 
voluntarily instead of having fallen in. There 
was a light breeze which raised waves perhaps 
a foot high and the squirrel was swimming in 
the trough and directly across the lake. As we 
approached he changed his course, heading di¬ 
rectly up into the wind and raised his head high 
out of water to avoid being splashed by the top 
of the waves. He turned about and went back 
in the direction whence he came after having 
swam about a hundred yards. The distance 
around the lake from where he must have en¬ 
tered the water to the opposite side could not 
have been more than a quarter of a mile, and 
the shore was easily visible all the way, so that 
the animal must have voluntarily taken a short 
cut rather than go around. 
I should be glad to know whether this is un¬ 
usual or whether squirrels are known to take 
to the water voluntarily and not only when 
driven in by fire or other fear. 
William M. Foord. 
While Heron in New York. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 6 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of Aug. 26 I note a 
communication from Raleigh, N. C., mentioning 
the presence of snowy herons in that vicinity 
and questioning the accuracy of the identifica¬ 
tion. 
It will be of interest to mention that in the 
last week of August, while at Lake Waccabuc, 
Westchester county, New York, I saw a full 
grown white heron. At the time the bird was 
being attacked by a pair of the ordinary blue 
herons, which frequent the lake, and I had full 
opportunities for comparison. The stranger— 
for such a bird had not been seen on the lake 
before—was about the same size as the blue 
herons and was almost entirely white, having 
a small crest of black feathers. 
I was able to study the characteristics of the 
visitor, as the other birds so occupied its atten¬ 
tion that I got within nearly fifty yards of it 
in my boat. After being one day on the lake 
it disappeared. 
Of course it may have escaped from some 
private preserve, as a well known dealer in rare 
aquatic birds has an estab'ishment at Darien, 
Conn., not many miles away. 
William H. Coughlin. 
