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^[[Curator rep file]]

^[[1]]

^[[Report on the]] [[underline]]Department of Living Animals.[[/underline]]
^[[in the U.S. National Museum]] ^[[1889]]
^[[By]] [[underline]]W. T. Hornaday, Honorary Curator.[[/underline]]

The collection of living animals increased during the year 1888-89 to the limit it could be allowed to attain under the circumstances which regulate its existence.  The closed building has for months been filled to its utmost capacity, and the crowds of visitors which daily visited the collection were often so great as to cause general discomfort.  The open yards were so completely filled with large animals that it was only by the greatest difficulty that all the specimens were finally accommodated.

Under such conditions, when the accommodations for the collections had been expanded to their utmost limits, it was found necessary to check the increase of the number of specimens, both by declining gifts where possible to do so, and by discontinuing entirely the making of purchases.

Although the collection of living animals attracted its full share of attention from visitors to the Museum, everything else accomplished by the department during the year becomes of small importance in compariso with the aid it rendered in bringing about the establishment by Congress of the National