TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 61 



An unusually valuable lot of doves and weaver-birds were col- 

 lected for the Society in Africa by Gustav Sebille, and added to 

 the collection. 



Black-footed penguins have at last been acclimatized, and will 

 doubtless remain long on exhibition. Their summer home is 

 in the large flying cage, but in winter they inhabit a stone igloo 

 in one of the cages on the eastern side of the large Bird House. 

 These birds are so strange in form, and of such great interest, 

 their acclimatization is a matter for congratulation. 



All American birds which have been reduced almost to the 

 point of extinction by the influence of civilization are of prime 

 interest. In this connection a valuable addition is a second speci- 

 men of the rare whooping crane, of our Northwest. The two 

 trumpeter swans in the Park made a nest in the Beaver Pond and 

 laid eggs, but failed to hatch them. It is claimed by some orni- 

 thologists that but few of these birds are left alive in the world. 



Of the many smaller birds of brilliant plumage and special 

 interest which have been added to the collection during the year 

 the most noteworthy are the green hunting-crows and wandering 

 tree-magpies of India, the strange rollers, cayenne wood-rail, 

 Patagonian lapwings, pine grosbeaks and black-banded aracari 

 toucans. Prof. C. O. Whitman presented a pair of the scarce 

 oriental turtle doves, of interest from their generalized type of 

 plumage. 



Many rare species of birds have laid eggs during the year, and 

 the nests and young birds have been in evidence throughout the 

 spring and summer. Eggs have been laid by sand-hill cranes, 

 ■white-breasted guans, rufous tinamous, curassows, weka rails, 

 griffon vultures, brown pelicans, double-striped stone plovers, 

 rheas and emus. 



The voluntary return of a turkey vulture to the Flying Cage 

 after an absence of many months, and the presence of an escaped 

 mockingbird at large in the Zoological Park throughout the en- 

 tire winter, hints of a new field of work which the Curator hopes 

 soon to enter. It suggests the idea of stocking the Park, and 

 perhaps eventually the surrounding country, with vanished native 

 species, such as the cardinal, bluebird and mockingbird, and, by 

 a system of extensive berry-feeding in winter to make them more 

 or less permanent residents. If they are reared in the Park and 

 then set free, there is no reason why such a plan should not 

 succeed. 



Two large wall cases have been put up in the Glass Court. 

 In one the development of a feather is shown by means of wax 



