TWENTY-KIFTII ANNUAL REPORT 77 



The Tropical Research Station collected a number of birds, 

 including two fine specimens of the cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola 

 rupicola), giving us three individuals of this splendid species. 



At the end of the report of the Director will be found a list 

 of the more important arrivals during the year. A total of 

 eighty species new to the collection was received, a number far 

 greater than in any previous year since 1913. 



On May 29, 1920, the Society sent a shipment to the 

 Zoological Gardens of London, including 239 birds of 103 species. 

 Keeper James Bailey, of the bird section, was sent from London 

 to convey the consignment and landed it in London practically 

 without loss. 



On October 6, 1920, an exchange collection was sent to the 

 Zoological Gardens of Pretoria, including forty-three birds of 

 twenty-nine species. This consignment left on the steamer 

 Chinese Prince, in care of Keeper Schluter of the Pretoria 

 Gardens. 



Two new installations were completed during the year. 

 One is a new cage for blackbirds and grackles, a well-built dome, 

 with background of concrete and stone. It occupies the former 

 site of the old wooden-framed structures, which had become 

 unsightly. The other is a series of twenty-eight individual par- 

 rot cages, arranged in three tiers, in the space in the parrot hall 

 formerly occupied by cockatoos. These cages are now filled with 

 the finest series of lories, parrots and parrakeets ever possessed 

 by the Society. Their completion has placed our parrot collec- 

 tion on a new footing, which we hope to be able to maintain. 



Among the birds reared in the Park during the year several 

 are worthy of special notice. The most interesting is a black 

 vulture (Catharista urubu urubu), apparently the first record in 

 captivity. The parents occupy a cage in the Eagles' Aviary. 

 The female laid two eggs and hatched two young, but only one 

 nestling was reared to maturity. During the height of the breed- 

 ing season in the Flying Cage gull colony, our two pairs of lovely 

 silver gulls (Bnichigavia novxhollandix) nested several times, 

 but each time their eggs or young were destroyed by quarrelsome 

 neighbors. However, after the other birds had left the rookery, 

 a pair of silver gulls, more persistent than the others, nested 

 again and this time reared two fine young birds. This certainly 

 is the first record for America. Early in the year, a young 



