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Bird Notes from the Zoological Gardens.



they had made a nest. I found them exceedingly nervous sitters,

bolting from the nest each time I entered the room. I never got

beyond eggs, although many of them were fertile, perhaps had

the room been a heated one I might have been more successful.

The colouring in the male bird is much brighter in the breeding

season than at other times, the change taking place without

apparent loss of feathers. I advise beginners never to buy newly

imported specimens during the winter months; they are almost

certain to die within a few weeks.


(To be continued).



BIRD NOTES FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.


By The Curator.


The most interesting recent event in the way of breeding

has been the hatching and rearing of a young Brazilian Cariama

(Cariama cristata) which has taken place in the Eastern Aviary,

as mentioned last month. The young bird was hatched on June

7th, in a nest some eight or ten feet from the ground. A plat¬

form of sticks had been fixed up. and the pair of Cariamas

formed upon this a nest of twigs, straw and any rubbish they

could obtain. The two eggs, one of which got broken, were


about the size of those of a common fowl. From a distance


they appeared white, but, as a rule, the eggs of this species are

thinly spotted with reddish. Incubation lasted 28 or 30 days,

and the chick when hatched was covered with down of a huffish

brown colour. The parents were supplied with chopped butcher’s

meat, chopped hard-boiled egg, mice, cut into small portions,

and cockroaches.


The food was taken to the nest in the parents’ bill and


bolted whole by the young bird, which left the nest on July 6th,


when just a month old.


The photographs here reproduced, show the young bird

at this stage. It has since developed more distinct striping on

the back of the neck and mottling of brown on the wing

coverts.


I11 last month’s notes I mentioned the valuable collection

of birds brought home by Mr. Frost and presented to the Zoo-



