on Cuvier’s Podargus.



333



amples of this or allied species have been exhibited at rare intervals

in the Regent’s Park collection. One of these later accessions

attained to newspaper fame, a sketch of it appearing some fifteen

years ago in an illustrated weekly. The bird was depicted solemnly



perched on a tombstone, with a full moon shining, serene and bright,

behind it. Beneath ran the legend :—


'‘A neiv arrival at the Zoo: the Podargus. The Podargus swalloivs

young mice with the same freedom ; that a canary sivalloius hemp

seed. Its favourite habit is to sit on tombstones.”


A Cuvier’s Podargus studied by the writer several years ago

remained awake though sluggish during the daytime: w T hen ap-



