The publication of this revised and extended edition of the Guide to the Zoological Park is necessary in order to bring our most important collections down to date. With the completion of the Zebra House and Eagle Aviary, we are now able to offer a Guide Book to the Zoological Park as practically finished.

The visitor is not to understand, however, that with the completion of the features named above nothing more will remain to be done. An institution of this kind never reaches a state of absolute completion, with no further possibilities of improvement. But the building of boundary walls, and the rebuilding of temporary entrances, are matters of small moment in comparison with the completion of a grand series of installations for animals, and buildings for public comfort.

Few indeed are the persons who know, or who ever will know, the extent to which both the general design and the details of the Zoological Park have been originated, and hammered out of the raw materials. From the inception of the undertaking, the work of development has involved a continuous struggle to meet new conditions. Although precedents and models for things to be done were sought far and wide, in all save a very few instances, our needs were so peculiar, and so different from those of other zoological gardens and parks, we have found really very little that we could copy. The abundant-room idea on which the Zoological Park was founded, and our desire for the full utilization of the works of nature, have from the first taxed the creative faculties of the Society to the utmost.

It has been gratifying to find in other zoological establishments a number of features which we could utilize here, thereby saving ourselves something in the eternal grind of invention and experiment, and we have gladly made prominent mention of such cases.

While it is possible to complete the equipment of animal installations for a Zoological Park, and fill them with fine collections, the demand for more animals is continuous. Our wild creatures are not immortal; and, like human beings, they live out their allotted lives and pass away. The great majority do not perpetuate themselves in captivity, and the depleted ranks must be filled by new gifts and new purchases. Gifts of specimens, and funds for purchases, must constantly be forthcoming.

In the acquisition of certain representative species of great variety but particular desirability, the Society has been much favored by its friends, both at home and abroad. Frequently it happens that the greatest zoological rarities are obtainable only through the good will and tireless industry of friends who travel into the most remote and inaccessible regions of the earth. It is to such sources that we owe our musk-ox herd, walrus, mountain goat herd, spectacled bear and many other species.

The Executive Committee makes grateful acknowledgment of the loyal and generous support it has constantly received from the Board of Managers, the members of the Zoological Society, and from the Government of the City of New York. Thanks to a judicious union of these forces, the development of the Zoological Park has gone forward rapidly and satisfactorily. Although the actual period of construction has been remarkably short for so vast an undertaking, everything constructed is of the most permanent character. It is only just to note the fact that while the Zoological Park is an institution of national interest and importance, and free to all the world, with the exception of a few gifts of animals it has been created and is maintained wholly by the citizens of the City of New York. The State has contributed nothing.

The Executive Committee.

JUNE 1, 1913.