66 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



macavuanna macaw, lesser yellow-headed blackbirds, and salta- 

 tor and bine tanagers. 



The second acquisition of note was a large lot of birds ac- 

 quired by direct importation from ^Mexico. The names of tree- 

 partridges, anis, motmot, green kingfishers, golden-fronted wood- 

 peckers, limpkin, phainopeplas, ptilogonys, and yellow-crowned 

 night heron, will show what interesting birds are included in this 

 lot. A number of these, indeed, are species which have never be- 

 fore been kept in captivity, and the study of their habits is yield- 

 ing facts of great popular and scientific interest. 



Among other birds obtained during the year, a number are 

 well worthy of especial mention here. The most important were 

 the one-wattled cassowary. North African ostrich, white rhea, 

 giant whydah, golden oriole, Lawrence warbler, Douglas quail, 

 trumpeter, bell-bird, guira cuckoo, chopi, boat-tail and aztec jay. 



While the collection as a whole contains birds representative 

 of every country in the world, yet the splendid avifauna of our 

 own hemisphere is becoming dominant, and rightly so. for of 

 many of these birds but little is known, and both in showy ap- 

 pearance and interesting ways they are of prime importance. 



A good-sized flock of turkey and black vultures has been se- 

 cured, and the experiment of acclimatizing these birds will soon 

 be under way. 



Every available moment Avhich could be spared from routine 

 work and supervision of the management of the department, has 

 been devoted by the Curator to scientific work. Zooloi^ica, No. 2, 

 is almost ready for the press, and will be entitled, "A Contribution 

 to the Ornithology of the Eastern Coast of Venezuela." 



An abstract of the Curator's reasearches in color changes was 

 published in the American Naturalist for January, 1908, under 

 the heading of ''A Preliminary Report on an Investigation of the 

 Seasonable Changes of Color in Birds." 



A forty-thousand-word manuscript has been made readv for 

 the printer, dealing with the general treatment of birds in cap- 

 tivity, and embracing a digest of the knowledge gained during 

 the care of our bird collections during the ])ast ten years. This 

 will appear in the volume soon to be published by the Society on 

 the care of animals in captivity. 



A special subscription of $250, from Airs. Erank K. Sturgis, 

 to be devoted to experimental research, has been of the greatest 

 assistance to Mr. Beebe. 



In addition to the investigation of the meaning and cause of 

 color, researches in structural comparative anatom\- and embry- 



