28 Graham Renshaw—Bird Life at Manchester Zoo


Amongst the exhibits is a fine Emu, which lives summer and

winter in an unheated shed with a paddock adjoining. On the

writer's visit the bird stood still and silent among the long grass,

occasionally shaking its head and looking about it, or turning to

preen its hair-like plumage. Presently it walked forward with a

delicate swinging gait, the body tilted as if too heavy for the slender

legs, and the neck lowered, though still curved, as it inspected the

herbage ; the savage, hawk-like expression of the mild-natured

Emu is remarkable, and is due to the yellowish colour of the eye.

Only one of the beautifully tame Rheas survived, a fine cock, with

long, trailing plumes that almost compensated for the tailless con¬

dition that obtains in these birds. In former days one had seen

this bird and his mate following their master for bread like farmyard

hens following their owner for corn.


Passing to the rows of large cages or aviaries, a Peacock was

noticed perched fast asleep, its long train swaying in the breeze.

The wind was not likely to disturb it, for these birds have been

known to sleep unconcernedly out in the open during a snowstorm,

so that their backs become thickly coated with snow. Once

domesticated, Peafowl make themselves thoroughly at home. The

writer now has before him an egg of these birds which was found at

the top of a stack in the summer of 1891, and seems somewhat

weathered, being of a pale cream colour, minutely pitted all over

and marked with a few brownish spots which may be nest-stains.

Our members are probably aware that the long train of the Peacock

is not the tail but the tail coverts, the true tail being a small, in¬

significant structure.


In another roomy cage a trio of Sparrow-hawks stood stiffly

erect, with yellow eyes and barred breasts, turning their heads this

way and that. In the outdoor flying aviary the long necks of the

Herons showed snaky against the greenery, and complacent Sea¬

gulls waddled to and fro like so many Ducks. In a cage opposite

a Buzzard stood with both feet firmly planted on its food, tearing

off morsels with hooked beak.


There was a fine blue-black Curassow in one of the houses, feeding

as it walked about, taking tiny rapid pecks and looking up after each



