188



Zoo Notes.



the sound resembling a thick stick being drawn rapidly along

some wooden railings, sometimes this jarring may be heard

pitched in a high key and the next minute in a deep or lower

tone, this is not a note from the bird’s throat, but is produced by

the bird’s beak being hammered against the dead, but tough,

hard limb of the tree at a tremendous pace, so fast, that the head

of the bird can scarcely be seen to move. It may be heard at a

very great distance, on a calm day. The reason of the rattling

being heard in different tones is caused by the bird moving from

a thick to a thinner branch, the thick wood causing the lower

tone, when rapidly hammered, and the thin the higher pitched

sound.


When courting, the male bird sometimes in flying a short

distance to another tree, will alter its bounding or undulating

flight and fly straight and limply flap its wings, similar to the

flight of a large Bat or Butterfly. These birds wander about the

country, far from their breeding-ground, in winter, but return to

it as early as the middle of February.



ZOO. NOTES.


By The Curator.


A pair of Siamese Firebaek Pheasants (. Lophura diardi )

has been purchased, together with a female of the rare Bornean

species L. ignita, the latter making a pair with the male pre¬

sented by the Duke of Bedford as mentioned last month.


The collection of Birds of Prey has been enriched by the

acquisition of a Jackal Buzzard ( Buteo jacal) from South Africa,

and a Red-backed Buzzard (B. erytluonotus ) from South America.


A Chestnut-breasted Teal ( Nettium castaneuvi) is the first

to lay eggs in the new enclosure at the west end of the Gardens.

She selected a nest box about four feet from the ground and laid

four eggs, but as the weather was very cold the eggs were taken

and are now in an incubator. These Australian Teal besides

being very rare are some of the most desirable of the smaller

Waterfowl, being excellent breeders, hardy and beautiful.



