August, 1S92.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



Big Birds at the Philadelphia Zoo. 



Observing visitors to the Zoological 

 Garden were impressed by an extraordi- 

 nary condition of affairs in the houses of 

 the great birds of prey. The big shed 

 below the pretentious dwelling place of 

 the carnivora shelters some of the finest 

 specimens of the carrion-feeding family in 

 captivity. There is an immense South 

 American Condor with wings that would 

 overspread a Corktown palace, and feet 

 that would do justice to a Lombard Street 

 belle. Her associates are gigantic Vul- 

 tures and Buzzards, whose reddish and 

 brownish coats are in the latest spring 

 styles. Several huge Eagles of the bald 

 and golden types possess roosting places 

 in the same area, but they hold themselves 

 more or less aloof from the carrion-eaters, 

 as becomes the lofty seekers of live prey. 

 Flanking the big shed are Eagles and 

 Hawks in less imposing quarters. 



These wondrous inhabitants of the 

 garden, sitting about in listless, indifferent 

 manner, as if wholly lost to all interest in 

 existence, have been familiar objects to 

 Zoo visitors for years. There are no new- 

 comers among them. What impressed 

 the big crowds of the initial Sunday of 

 the season was the change in their man- 

 ner. They no longer seemed lazy and 

 indifferent. They were as busy as it is 

 possible for imprisoned Vultures and Eagles 

 to be. 



In the big shed the ground was strewn 

 with logs, branches of trees and bark, 

 which Vultures and Eagles were breaking 

 and trimming and carrying about the 

 room. It required but a moment to see 

 that they were building nests of a kind 

 not heretofore known to civilization. The 

 great Condor's was particularly remarka- 

 ble. It was fully completed and covered the 

 entire top of the apartment, in one corner, 

 reserved for keeper's utensils. It was 

 built of big and small branches and bark 



arranged with singular precision. In the 

 midst of it, observable only to the keepers 

 who mounted their step-ladder, was an 

 egg as big as a Philadelphia cobble-stone. 

 Smaller nests were the proud property of 

 eagles. Some were in the earlier stages 

 of construction. One or two of them con- 

 tained eggs. 



It was something to cause a genuine 

 sensation among the attaches of the gar- 

 den as well as of all students of zoology. 

 For the great carrion-eaters and birds of 

 prey to mate and nest in captivity was 

 never known before. Even head-keeper 

 Byrne, with his robust ideas of the possi- 

 bilities of feathery captivit}', had hardly 

 hoped for fresh-laid Buzzard eggs and 

 Eagle eggs. 



Interest naturally centered in the move- 

 ments of the great Condor. She had been 

 the centre of admiration of the entire Buz- 

 zard throng for a week or two and finally 

 selected as her mate a huge cinereous Vul- 

 ture cajDtured in Africa. She seemed to 

 take the greatest pride in the nest and its 

 big egg. A large part of her time was 

 spent in watching it, the African Vulture 

 stationing himself upon a near-by perch 

 meanwhile as if to keep off' any intruders. 

 As soon as the Condor would leave her 

 precious charge her zealous spouse would 

 spring upon the side of the nest and stand 

 guard until her return. 



A strange thing about this singular inti- 

 macy is the fact that for ten years the Vul- 

 ture and the Condor have lived in the 

 same shed without displaying any further 

 interest in each other than the coldest pla- 

 tonic friendship. Some philosophers have 

 observed that all true love is grounded on 

 esteem, but head-keeper Byrne accounts 

 for this case in another and more prosaic 

 way. 



"The secret is this," he said. "The 

 nearer you approach a state of nature the 

 better it is for birds in every way. In 

 that state the first thingf Vultures and 



