the brain-work, the knowledge--without
which the whole would be a failure--is furnished the society by its
council entirely free.

The collection of living animals is the finest in existence, and is
daily increasing. Scattered everywhere are its corresponding members,
keeping it advised of every opportunity to augment its stores: its
agents have penetrated and are still exploring the desert and the
jungle, braving the heats of the equator, and the terrible winters of
the ice-bound regions of the globe, to furnish every possible link in
the grand procession of organized life.

A large proportion of the most wonderful and valuable part of the
collection has been presented by crowned heads and governors of
different countries, British consuls, other zoological societies,
British naval and military officers stationed in foreign ports and
posts, Englishmen of wealth and travelers. The donations to the society
for the year 1871 would alone be sufficient to establish a Garden at
Fairmount Park which would be the finest in America. They amounted to
over five hundred in number, and include almost every description of
animal, from a tiger to a monkey, and from an imperial eagle to a
humming-bird. With our present connection by rail and steamer with the
East and West Indies, and other distant regions, let it only be
generally known that such a Garden as is now proposed exists in
Philadelphia, and it will receive contributions from all parts of the
world. The Philadelphia society has already had numerous offers of
animals, birds and reptiles, and the promise of any number for the mere
cost of transportation. The officers of the Smithsonian Institution at
Washington have expressed their willingness and desire to hand over to
any proper association the many curious animals constantly offered it.
The societies of Europe, many of whose managers have been in
communication with the one started here, are extremely anxious that a
collection of American animals, birds, reptiles and fishes shall be
made. It will be wholly unique, and will attract zoologists from every
part of the world, permitting them, for the first time, to study the
habits of many new species. This continent has a wealth of subjects of
the animal kingdom as yet almost unexplored. The birds are absolutely
innumerable, and the immense rivers produce fishes of the most marvelous
character and but little known. In the Berlin Garden, rapidly becoming a
rival to the one in L