STRUCTURE OF CHAUNA 



little hook-like processes upon them, which serve for the 

 firm anchoring of certain muscles. These " uncinate " 

 processes, as anatomists term them, are also wanting 

 in that undoubtedly archaic and " mediaeval " bird, 

 Archceopteryx. Another ancient character has been 

 shown by the secretary of the Zoological Society, Dr. 

 Mitchell, who has justly likened the coils of the intestine 

 to those of a crocodile. It is an odd thing, as showing 

 how those who interpret extinct animals may fall into 

 unwitting error, to note that the median horn of 

 Palamedea leaves no traces of its presence upon the 

 skull ; whereas the skull of an entirely hornless bird, 

 the Cape crowned crane (Balearica), which we have 

 described on another page, has a bony excrescence or 

 rather a pair of them on the skull ; this would lead the 

 naturalist, were he only acquainted with the skull, 

 to gratuitously present to the Cape crowned crane a 

 pair of rather large horns, and to descant with ap- 

 parently well justified inference upon a descendant of 

 horned Dinosaurs. As we see, the precise reverse of 

 the indications offered by the skull exist. The Pala- 

 medea is horned, while Balearica is not. 



These clamorous inhabitants of the Zoo are, as a rule, 

 to be found in the well filled Eastern Aviary. But 

 in the summer months they are sometimes moved for a 

 change farther west into open paddocks suitable in size 

 for walking exercise. In such a situation and in the 

 year 1904 the Chauna bred and reared three young. 

 This event happened for the first time in the history of 

 the Society, though many pairs have been exhibited. 



THE CONDOR 



The condor, together with the king vulture, the 

 " turkey buzzard," and the Calif ornian vulture, form 

 an assemblage of birds which are collectively known 

 by the general term of " the American vultures," 



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