Frederick D. Welch — Notes from the Zoological Gardens 115


to as “ a scream of alarm ”, line 8. Moreover, after the young were

hatched and had left the nest I went close to a chick to inspect it,

and both parents came at me with outstretched wings and showing

their spurs, but there was no sound uttered by either as they would

have done had the scream been one of “ alarm ”, for it was clear that

both parents regarded their young one as in danger. At other times,

when not nesting, the pair used to scream at intervals, this being

obviously nothing more than an outburst of pleasure; so that it does

not seem that the cry of the species, as a whole, can properly be called

one of “ alarm


But to return to the chicks: they appeared downy within twenty-

four hours of hatching, with red legs like their parents, certainly when

eight days old (if not earlier), and as they grew gradually feathered

into slate-grey with a black ring round the neck.


An interesting attempt to hatch out a chick was made by two

Black Vultures (Catharista at rata ), which were the last survivors of

a large family—-about thirty, from what I saw of them—which reached

the Zoo at the time when Bertling was head-keeper.


As attempts which “ just fail ” are not always recorded, it may be

mentioned that these two were finally put into one of the cages between

the path over the tunnel and the Small Mammal (Cats, etc.) House,

and the female deposited an egg on the ground in a further corner,

there being (so far as could be seen) only a depression scratched in the

earthen floor for the egg. On this she sat regularly (so far as I could

discover, the male took no part in incubating), and looked as if she would

hatch off. Unfortunately the roofing over the nest had been damaged

and only temporarily repaired with network, which did not matter

so long as the weather remained fine ; but just before what seemed to

be the full period the weather turned terribly wet, and drenching rain

came through the opening in the roof on to the Vulture, which stayed

on its nest for more than two days, drenched through, after which it

deserted, apparently unable to tolerate the heavy rains. This change

of weather was unfortunate, because the egg, which was white, had the

chick full-grown inside it, and would apparently have hatched off in

another twenty-four hours. This I saw myself, as it was broken open

after an attempt had been made in the incubating-room to hatch it.



