ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



399 



of its habits in a wild state, but it is said to 

 lay two white eggs at the end of a burrow 

 scraped out of the side of a steep bank over- 

 hanging a stream. This macaw is the largest 

 of its family and is wholly of a deep blue color. 

 At the base of the bill and around the eyes 

 are small patches of brilliant yellow, and the 

 tongue is stained with the same hue. The 

 enormous beak is black, dwarfing the huge 

 mandibles of any other species of macaw. 

 When it really wishes to escape from its cage, 

 the strongest wire generally gives like pack 

 thread, and the thickest hardwood perch is 

 reduced to sawdust in an incredibly short 

 period of time. But strange to say, with all 

 this mighty strength, the bird shows a quiet- 

 ness of disposition and lack of ill temper which 

 is unusual among its near relations. The 

 hyacinthine macaw in the Zoological Park 

 enjovs being fondled and caressed by its 

 keeper, and if carried around on the hand, 

 never, without provocation, attempts to fly 

 away or to nip hard. Altogether, it is a most 

 delightful inmate of the Bird House, and there 

 is ever an admiring throng about its cage. 

 It seems to enjoy this publicity, and revolves 

 slowly on its perch, shovi'ing ofif all sides of 

 its wonderful plumage. Sometimes it secures 

 a firm grip with feet and bill and vibrates its 

 wings so rapidly that they become a bluish 

 haze, calling out all the while m the thick 

 and almost human utterances of its own 

 strange vocabulary, the untranslatable lan- 

 guage of the macaws. 



Of all the thousands of living birds now in 

 the collection of the Zoological Society, the 

 most beautiful, perhaps, are a pair of white- 

 crested touracous. And unlike some orna- 

 mental creatures, they are as interesting as they 

 are exquisite in color. The plumage is a rich 

 grass green with a large patch of vivid scarlet 

 on each wing, and a stiffly erect crest tipped 

 with a delicate brush of white. Every movement 

 is full of grace, and from their slender necks 

 to their well-proportioned feet they are crea- 

 tures of beauty which it is a delight to watch. 

 Their position in classification has long been 

 a matter of dispute, but true to their character 

 of two toes in front and two behind, they are 

 now usually placed near the cuckoos, with a 

 strong leaning in the direction of the parrots, 

 although they are absolutely imlike these 

 latter birds both in appearance and actions. 

 The most interesting thing about them lies 

 in the red color of the larger wing feathers, 

 this hue taking up a considerable portion of 

 each side of the vane of the feathers. When 

 the birds bathe, this pigment sometimes tinges 

 the water a slight rose color, a remarkable 



fact when we realize how permanent and 

 difficult of extraction the pigments of birds' 

 feathers usually are. When the proper suc- 

 cession of acid and alkali are used, this red 

 color of the touracous" wing can be extracted 

 and precipitated in the form of a bluish-green 

 powder and we find that it is nothing more 

 nor less than pure, metallic copper. In no 

 other organic compound in the world is copper 

 known to occur thus as a pigment. The per- 

 centage is from 6 to lo per cent. It burns with 

 a greenish flame before it is taken from the 

 feather, and in fact all its other reactions 

 are those of copper, as truly as any of the 

 metal mined and incorporated in coin or other 

 manufactured articles. 



The source of this metal in the bird's wing 

 is unknown, although it has been suggested 

 that in a wild state the touracou picks up pieces 

 of copper or malachite with the grit which 

 they swallow to aid them in grinding their 

 food. A much more probable explanation is, 

 that bananas, of which these birds are very 

 fond, contain traces of the metal, and that by 

 the accumulation of this, sufficient is stored 

 up in the dermal tissues to produce the re- 

 quired percentage in the wing feathers. As 

 if one such remarkable fact were not enough, 

 abundant traces of iron have been found in 

 the green portions of the plumage, so that 

 these birds are metal extractors in more than 

 one way. 



About twenty-five species of touracous are 

 known and all live in Africa, but only a few 

 of these have the coppery-red color in the 

 wings. Some have white patches where this 

 color is located in the others. In the Zoolog- 

 ical Park, the Curator of Birds has extracted 

 the metal from one of these feathers and has 

 placed it on exhibition in a wall case in the 

 Glass Court. Thus, in the same house with 

 the living specimens of touracous, is shown 

 the normal feather, the pale feather from 

 which the color has been taken, and finally 

 two small vials of the precipitated copper 

 itself. 



Three penguins from South Africa, via the 

 London Zoo, are now living in perfect health 

 in the Zoological Park, and seem to thrive 

 under the new arrangement of keeping them 

 outdoors. They have a wind-break of glass, 

 and a tiny stone igloo into which they delight 

 to go and sit quietly for a few minutes, getting 

 up suddenly and waddling out comically as 

 if they had forgotten something. 



What the seals are to the mammals, pen- 

 guins are to the bird world, having given up 

 flisfht and taken to the sea. Their feathers have 



