ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



439 



lengthy periods, usually terminating the per- 

 formance by a wild flight down the range. 

 But the Asiatic white crane has two tricks which 

 he performs with idiotic abandon and punctili- 

 ous care. He selects some s))ot in the range, 

 and bores a hole into the turf with his mandi- 

 bles ; standing over it he pumps his head up and 



down, until one wonders how long he can keep 

 it going. If you go awaj^ and return in one 

 hour, as I did, you will find him still at it. 

 Again he seizes a feather in his beak and tosses 

 it into the air, and as it falls leaps for it and 

 catches it, repeating the trick, as the keeper told 

 me, for over an hour at a time. 



CENSUS OF AMERICAN BISON, JANUARY :, 19OS, OF PURE BLOOD. 



Captive in the United States 



Captive in Canada 



Total in America 



Captive in Europe 



Total in Captivity 



Wild Bison in the United States, Estimated . . . 



Wild Bison in Canada, Estimated 



Total pure Ijlood Bison, Jan. 1, 190S 



Number of owners of pure blood Bison, in America 

 Number of owners of pure blood Bison, in Europe 



506 

 214 



720 

 54 



610 

 262 



872 

 76 



301 

 22 



1116 

 476 



1592 

 130 



1722 

 25 

 300 



2047 

 45 

 19 



969 

 41 



1010 

 109 



BUFFALO-DOMESTIC HYBRIDS, "CATTALOES" 



In the United States . . 



In Canada 



In Europe 



Total on January 1, 190S 



260 



57 

 28 



1908 



243 

 17 

 21 



DOCILE WILD ANIMALS. 

 By R. L. DiTJiARs. 



IN every collection of animals there is alwaj-s 

 a number of individuals that particularly in- 

 terest the keepers. The men usually desig- 

 nate such examples as "pets," although not all 

 of them are to lie altogether trusted as are most 

 members of that ever-interesting class. In fact, 

 a few mammals sometimes gain a species of 

 favoritism through a display of extreme ugli- 

 ness. 



There are now living in the Zoological Park 

 a considerable number of animals which the 

 keepers term "pets." The Small-!Mammal 

 House contains the most interesting assortment 

 of them. It was at this building, but a few 

 daj-s past, that Mr. Sanborn endeavored to 

 photograph a "rounding up" of the keepers' 

 favorites, but owing to the attempted associa- 

 tion of members of such widely different orders 



as the Carnivora, Rodentia and Edentata, the 

 proposed group prepared for a battle royal. In 

 deference to a strong prospect of a lively scrim- 

 mage, the attempt at making a photograph was 

 abandoned. 



In the Small-!Mammal House the most, nmns- 

 ing pets are a South American wild dog, two 

 dingoes, a badger, several civets, an agouti, a 

 Malabar squirrel and an armadillo. When the 

 keepers of that building are cleaning their cages 

 in the early morning, most of the animals men- 

 tioned have the free run of the building, al- 

 though the men are necessarily careful not to 

 thus exercise those of their pets that might in- 

 jure each other. The badger and the agouti 

 are absolutely to be trusted not to stray away, 

 and are permitted to run at will outside the 

 Small-Mammal House. It is not unusual for 

 an excited visitor to report at the Small-^Iam- 

 mal House that he has met a strange-looking 

 animal ambling along the iiath, that liad 



