NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK—BAKER. 475 
tales of his digesting iron nails and similar objects have led to the 
popular belief that his intelligence is very low. It is a fact that he 
readily picks up hard, bright objects and pebbles to assist in the 
trituration of his food, as our own barnyard fowl does in a lesser 
degree, and in repairing his paddock care is taken not to leave wire 
clippings about. From the small head of the bird it might seem that 
the brain matter was rather deficient, but it appears from recent 
investigations that many functions of the brain of higher vertebrates 
are in his case performed by the large and well-developed spinal cord. 
The park has two species of ostriches—one presented by King 
Menelek, of Abyssinia; another from South Africa. It has also a 
number of birds that are near relatives to the ostrich, such as the 
rhea, or South American ostrich, and the emeu that represents this 
family in Australia. 
THE CASSOWARY. 
Closely allied to the ostrich is the cassowary, from New Guinea 
and Australia—a large bird, with rudimentary wings, blue-black 
plumage, highty colored neck and wattles, and a helmetlike crest. 
Unlike the ostrich, these birds are lovers of the forest, and are said — 
to use this strong helmet to part the branches of the dense scrub in 
which they live and which they traverse at great speed, quite baffling 
the hunter. When captured they are very readily tamed and breed 
well in captivity. 
THE OWLS. 
There are usually several species of owls in the park, as they are 
frequently found in the vicinity by farmers, who consider them as 
‘‘vermin,” overlooking their value as exterminators of rats and mice. 
At the ineeption of the collection, when it was kept at the back of the 
Smithsonian, a colony of barn owls was discovered in one of the 
towers of that institution. This species is not, however, generally 
known to agriculturists, and we are often asked to identify a ‘‘rare 
bird which no one in the neighborhood has ever seen,” and find that 
it is the tawny barn owl, which from its peculiar facial coloration has 
been given the name of the ‘‘monkey-faced”’ owl. The horned owl, 
the barred owl, and the screech owl may usually be seen here. The 
beautiful snowy owl in plate 37 is a visitor from the North, its 
home being within the Arctic Circle, whence it comes southward in 
the winter in search of food, being occasionally seen even in this 
latitude. Unlike some of the owls it sees well by day. 
THE GULL. 
Everyone who has seen the ocean or a big lake knows the gull that 
follows steamers halfway across the Atlantic and ascends every great 
river far inland, with tireless and powerful flight. It seems strange 
