TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 71 



DEPARTMENT OF BIRDS. 



Lee S. Craxdall, Curator; William Beebe, Honorary Curator; 

 Samuel Stacet, Head Keeper. 



During- 1921, a special effort was made to secure additions 

 to our bird collections, through our own channels, with the feel- 

 ing that once that crucial year had passed, the open market 

 would have regained its normal condition. This was not the case, 

 however, dealers' arrivals in 1921 having- been fewer than in any- 

 other year since the close of the war. This fact, coupled with 

 the lack of large private consignments, such as characterized 

 the previous year, caused a small total of bird arrivals at the 

 Zoological Park during- 1921. While the collection remains rich 

 in rarities, perhaps more so than at any previous time in its 

 history, there is a lack of the small and inconspicuous species 

 which go to make up the bulk of every large collection. Our 

 own resources for supply must again be called into action in 1922, 

 and steps to this end already have been taken. 



Only two important dealers' consignments reached New 

 York during the year. One of these, on May 9, from the Orient, 

 contained a number of Asiatic and East Indian species not pre- 

 viously imported for some years. The second, from Africa, in- 

 cluded several Ethiopian species of the same character. With 

 the latter shipment came a concave-casqued hornbill (Dicho- 

 ceros hicornis) , an Indian species. This was a young half-grown 

 bird, which is developing rapidly into an excellent specimen. 



On September 10, Mr. Kenyon V. Painter presented the So- 

 ciety with an unusually fine South African ground hornbill 

 (Bucorax cafer) . In October, we secured by purchase our first 

 specimen of the rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), a 

 strong and healthy young bird. We thus possess three of the 

 finest forms of this interesting group, and with the several 

 smaller species already in the collection, we can exhibit an un- 

 usually good series of hornbills. 



Early in June, through the friendly cooperation of Mr. Louis 

 Ruhe, we received from Mr. F. E. Blaauw, the famous Dutch 

 aviculturist, a notable shipment of rare waterfowl, including 

 pairs of ashy-headed and ruddy-headed upland geese (Chloephaga 

 poliocephala and C. rubidiceps) ; a pair of African spotted ducks 

 (Ayias sparsa) ; a male Hawaiian goose {Nesochen sandvicensis) 

 and four young trumpeter swans. The Hawaiian goose is ex- 



