412 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
in the insect house. Other tropical insular birds are lodged in the 
parrot house. By the generosity of Mr. C. Czarnikow the Zoological 
Society has this year commenced the construction of a new aviary, 
which will be used exclusively for the shelter of delicate species. 
The parrots are represented by a fine series of specimens that is 
doubtless the best collection of those birds to be found in any zoolog- 
ical garden. The house assigned to them was reconstructed in 1905; 
it comprises a central building with isolated cages and a series of 
large compartments with sandy bottom, some inclosed and some in 
the open air. 
This house does not contain, however, all the parrots that the gar- 
den possesses. Some years ago it was found by trial that a number 
of individuals do better in the open air than in closed cages, and these 
are now kept in the canal bank aviary. This building, which is 25 
meters long by 12 wide and 10-12 high, faces the canal; the south- 
east side is protected by a steep slope down which a stream runs from 
an artificial grotto; the three other sides are sheltered by large trees. 
Besides this a number of shelters against wind and rain are placed 
along the aviary. Artificial nests, where many species breed each 
year, are provided. The raptores or predatory birds are placed in 
five different aviaries. * * * 
The aquatic birds (web-footed and wading birds) are scattered 
throughout the garden in at least fifteen different places. Certain 
species of geese, swans, and ducks are placed in localities so arranged 
that they breed regularly. The pelicans are usually represented by 
three different species; the penguins have been placed as I have al- 
ready mentioned, with their natural associates the seals; other diving 
birds, the cormorants and kingfishers are placed in a house specially 
constructed so as to afford the public an opportunity of seeing how 
these birds pursue their living prey under water (the diving birds’ 
house). A certain number of palmipeds and small waders live to- 
gether in one of the best aviaries of the garden (the waders’ aviary) 
in part of which bushes and rushes have been planted, while the rest 
is occupied by a small pond with shores of sand, gravel, or mud. 
The greater part of the wading birds are kept, however, in two 
large aviaries called the great aviary and the southern aviary. The 
latter, which dates from 1905, contains rockwork so arranged as to 
afford a shelter to the birds and permit them to set on their eggs. 
The other, reconstructed in 1903, contains a number of shrubs and 
trees which give almost natural conditions to the birds that occupy it. 
The most interesting gallinaceous birds in the garden are doubtless 
the brush-turkeys, which live in a large inclosure covered with wire, 
where they nest regularly every year. There is a fine collection of 
