The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-18
ACRES OF BEASTS.

Time of Roman Combats in the Thea
 ters.
 tFrom the New York Mail and Express.)
 In the series of monumental works which public-spirited citizens have de- signed to adorn the growing northern region of the city,none will be more conspicuous than the botanical and zo- ological gardens which are to have their habitations in the park system be- yond the Harlem. Already a site has been selected for the botanical garden, and the energies of its projectors are being devoted to the establishment of fund worthy it's purposes. The New York Geological society has also made choice of site, and within the week has inaugurated the movement to endoW the garden with ample resources.
 By the terms of an act of legislation passed two years ago, the board of sinking fund commissioners is author ized to set aside three hundred acres in one of the outlying parks for a zoolog- ical garden. With this charter the gentlemen interested in the matter have initiated their labors. During the winter body of experts examined the physical features of each of the availa- ble sites. The experts were A. E. Brown, superintendent of the Zoologi- cal Garden of Philadelphia; Frank Ba- ker, of the Washington Geological Gar den, and Professor F. $. Elliott of the Chicago Museum.
 These gentlemen reported against arly think 1t large enough; against Bronx park, becauseit it was already devoted to the uses of the Botanical society, and against Pelham Bay park, because it was too remote from the center of pop ulation. Their choice was the Van Cortland park, and, as soon as the so- ciety has raised two hundred and fifty thousand dollars by subscription, it will ask the sinking fund commissioners to set aside portion of the park for the | garden, provided a subcommittee will, as expected, ratify meanwhile the se- | lection of the experts.
 The location proposed is at the north ern end of Van Cortlandt park. It takes in all of the land beyond the stream that flows into Van Cortlandt lake. Within it's confines are hills and valleys and a stream of water Here | will be found the greatest geological | garden since the Roman emperors ran- | sacked the world for animals to grace the combats of the amphitheater, and Commodus, the imperial archer min- gled with the gladiators in the danger l ous pleasures of the arena.
 The ambitious character of the enter | prise will be understood when it is re- 1 membered that the menagerie in Gen. l tral Park covers less than ten acres; 1 that the larger of the geological gar- l dens in Europe and America do not av- | craze more than twenty-five acres in | extent, and that the two largest zoolog- I ical gardens in the world, at Berlin and London, occupy forty y-eight and thirty l three acres respectively It is intended l that the Greater New York shall have collection of wild animals which will | have three hundred acres to roam over. l For one thing an effort will be made | to get together an unequaled assem- l blaze of the fauna of America. W. E.. 1 Conklin will be superintendent of the | geological garden and under the direc- 1 tion of the board of managers he will | seek to secure specimens of those spe- cies of birds and beasts that are threat ened with extinction. He told Mail and Express reporter to-day what some of these were.
 Of course there will be the bison, the huge American OK whose hoof prints have disappeared from the plains be- yond the Mississippi. The beaver "in Canadian brooks will be brought from his obscure habitat to demonstrate that he exists elsewhere than on the great seal of New York. Another rare ani-
 mal will be the black wolf native in South Carolina and ranging as far south as Florida. Not once year does
 specimen find it's way to the muse
 ums of the north.
 The moose has been driven out of the I Adirondacks to the wildernesses of
 Maine and the Canadian lakes, and the
 elk is an infrequent wanderer upon the
 prairies of the far west. These huge
 cattle will be corralled for the New
 York gardens.
 Especial attention will be given tc
 securing fine specimens of number oi
 varieties of birds that are rapidly dis
 appearing from the face of the conti
 nent. One of the rarest of these is the
 white crane that occasionally is seer floating high in air above the flats be. yond the Mississippi Mir. Conkiin ha:
 been unable to fill the orders that come
 in to him from the European garden:
 at two hundred and fifty dollars bird
 although he has had a dozen trapper,
 doing his bidding in the west.
 The white swans in the lake at Cen
 tral Park are of European habitat
 The American swan is almost extinct Sometimes it is seen in the waters o
 Maryland and upon the marshes O Louisiana. Its distinctive marking i it's black bill, the European variet. having red bill. West of the Rockie it is called the Hooper swan, and her
 the upper part ofthe bill is marked witt
 yellow. While pair of European swans will bring forty dollars in tn market, the American birds will brins one hundred dollars.
 The only bird of the parrot family na
 tive to the United States is practicall.
 extinct. Last year MT. Conklin's hunt
 CTS sent half a dozen Carolina para
 keets north after having been in pur
 suit of the flock to which they belonged
 off and on for year. The birds wer,
 captured in Florida. It is believed tha
 there Is only one other flock in exist