158 



KNO\VLi:nGE. 



Ai'Hii . I'M 2. 



When It i> Miiiiiiil)creil tli.it mnamcntal Water- I'owl of many 

 kiiuls are kept in partial fni'cloni in a largo number of places 

 botli pnblic anil private, .and that numbers of foreign species 

 arc amongst them, it is only too sure that escapes take 

 place and form casnal and irrcKular and unjnstifiable 

 additions to "British" birds. Recent examples of this kind 

 are the American Wigeon. Uaikal Teal. Knddy Shelkliick, 

 Snow Goose and probably the American Bittern, and the list 

 could be continued indefinitely. Some of these birds also 

 occur truly wild. On the ponds in St. James' Park. 

 London, some forty different kinds of birds are kept, and 

 at places like Woburn Bark, Bedfordshire, many species 

 of non- British seesc. ducks, and other water-fowl breed year 

 after year successfully. Some other foreign birds are at 

 liberty at Woburn all the year round, such as Red-Crested 

 and Dominican Cardinals, which nest in the gardens and 

 have young. Orange Weavers have made a nest there, but 

 no eggs were laid. There are also numbers of the Australian 

 Crested Pigeon (Ocypluips lopliotes) and the Bronze-Winged 

 Pigeon (Pliaps chalcoptcra) in the Woburn Woods at large. 

 Australian Doves, liberated from the Zoological Gardens, 

 bred in the trees in the grounds and in the park, and some 

 wandered olT. There is a definite record of the escape from 

 Woburn of a South American Lapwing (VaneUns cayen- 

 nensis), which was shot some distance away as an unknown 

 bird. 



Flamingos have occurred very rarely wild in this country, 

 but it is known that birds of this kind sometimes get 

 away from Woburn and, no doubt, from other collections 

 also. One, for instance, seen feeding on the Glamorgan- 

 shire coast, in December, 1908, was supposed to be a 

 bird which had made its escape from Cardiff Castle three 

 weeks previously. A Flamingo recently flew, assisted by a 

 gale of wind, from the Zoological Gardens, London, into the 

 open park and going out of sight over the tree-tops 

 was given up for lost, but circling round in the air 

 it returned to the park and was secured. An odd "Zoo" 

 story is that of a young Penguin which about a year 

 ago escaped and was discovered walking along Baker Street 

 (so the newspapers stated at the time). Later on the same 

 bird was missing again and was believed to be in hiding in 

 Regent's Park and living on the fish in the lake. 



At present there is a pair of red-breasted Cockatoos 

 at liberty from the "Zoo" and there is no intention of 

 recapturing them, so long as they do no mischief. They 

 take long flights in the Gardens and at dusk fly off 

 and roost in the elms in Regent's Park. It is not unlikely 

 that they may nest in the spring in these high trees and 

 thus be genuine casuals, as this hardy bird can well take 

 care of itself. In 1908, one was shot which had been robbing 

 a poultry-yard in Glamorganshire. It was mistaken for a hawk, 

 being quite wild, and the place from which it had escaped could 

 not be ascertained, nor the time during which it had maintained 

 itself free. It has sometimes been suggested that Parakeets 

 might be liberated in English parks as ornamental birds, but 

 this would be dangerous as, if becoming abundant, they might 

 do damage to growing crops and to some of our native birds. 

 At present Ring-necked Indian Parakeets, belonging to Mr. 

 W. Jamrach, are at liberty at Stoke Newington. and come 

 down to feed in the poultry-yard. They live day and night in 

 the open and if they survive, it is proposed to liberate others 

 there. 



Pekin Robins iLiothrix h'ltcus) have been tried in St. 

 James' Park. London, and probably elsewhere, but. so far 

 as I know, without success. .\merican Robins iTunlus 

 tnifiratoriiis) were turned out near Guildford in 1908 or 1909, 

 and freely nested there, increasing in numbers considerably. 

 To such introductions as these ornithological purists are 

 strongly opposed, particularly if success is attained. The case 

 of the Little Owl iAthenc noctiia), which has now established 

 itself in many places in England, is looked upon with repro- 

 bation, and that of the Willow Grouse \Ln<>opiis albiis) is 

 considered quite as reprehensible in the areas where it has 

 been introduced. The .American Wild Tiukey has been tried at 

 Luss and Inveraray and probably elsewhere, but has not made 

 good its footing or spread. Purple Gallinules [Porphyriola 



allciti) have been shot in various parts of England, but this 

 is an Australian bird often kept with ornamental water- 

 fowl, and being a great climber it can get over high wire-netting 

 and thus escape. 



The .Mbatros is probably the most conspicuous casual 

 recorded in our avi-fauna. The Bl;ick-browed Albatros 

 {Dioiiicdca mclaiiopliyrs) occasionally finds its way into 

 ICuropean waters, and one was taken alive near Linton. 

 Cambridgeshire, in 1897. 1 believe that instances are known 

 of Albatroses having been brought over the line on board 

 ships, and allowed to fly olTon the northern side. They would 

 be likely to take a northern course, and this may account for 

 the occurrence of the species in Europe (J. F. Green, " (Jcean 

 Birds," page 4). The one or two old records in England of 

 the Tropic-bird (Pliacton I may be accounted for by conveyance 

 by ships, or may have been caused by violent storms. 



There is a remarkable instance of a Bird-of- Paradise (a hen 

 Rifle-bird) living in freedom fortenweeksin Sussex. Hensofthis 

 species were imported from New Guinea into this country for 

 the first time in 1908, and one managed to escape when being 

 transferred from its travelling cage to the large aviary for 

 which it was destined near Groombridge. It was lost sight of 

 from 7th September till 19th November, and was supposed to 

 have completely disappeared, when, on the last-named date, 

 it stunned itself by dashing against the window of a house 

 about two miles away from the place where it had escaped. 

 It soon recovered and was found to be in good health, and 

 was committed to the aviary for which it had been intended. 

 It is a demonstration of the hardiness of such birds, and 

 probably a unitiue casual case in our country. — Read before the 

 Hanipstcad Scientific Society, February Sth. 1912. 



MENDELIAN EXPERIMENTS.— At the scientific meet- 

 ing of the Zoological Society. London, on f)th February, two 

 papers on Mendelism were read. The first, by Mrs. Rose 

 Haig Thomas, described a breeding experiment which she 

 had carried out with pheasants in order to confirm one 

 previously made in which a cock pheasant had transmitted 

 the female plumage of his species to his female offspring of 

 the F 2 generation. This second experiment was conducted 

 with the F'ormosan pheasant (P. forinosanus) and the 

 Japanese pheasant (P. versicolor), and produced a similar 

 result. The second paper, by Mr. J. T. Cunningham, dealt with 

 the characters of a number of individuals of the V 2 generation, 

 reared from a cross between a Silky hen and a Bankiva cock, 

 bred in the Society's gardens by Mr. D. Seth-Smith. The 

 author described the various characters in detail, and remarked 

 that the most important results obtained were imperfect 

 segregation in the F 2 generation in at least two of the 

 characters — viz., absence of pigmentation in the plumage, 

 and also in the skins and tissues. 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 



i;y Edgar Senior. 



INFLUENCE OF ULTRA-VIOLET RAYS.— In "Notes" 

 for last month we showed how the suggestion put forward by 

 Fox Talbot in 1844 had been practically realized in the taking 

 of the portrait which formed the illustration. Not only, then, 

 will these dark rays act to such an extent upon the seilsitive 

 plate as to enable us to produce images by their aid, but they 

 may be the means of causing trouble in quite an opposite 

 direction : for if the sensitiveness of the plate depends upon 

 the absorption of these rays by the silver salt, and the body 

 upon which the light falls either partially or entirely absorbs 

 them itself, it is obvious that little or no action would take 

 place upon the photographic plate. To test this it is only 

 necessary to write upon white paper with a solution of the same 

 substance Ujuininc sulphate) that was used to make the dark 

 region of the spectrum visible, and then to take a photograph, 

 using the same screen that was previously employed to cut oft" 

 all visible light, when upon development a strong image of the 

 writing, " which was invisible to the eye on the paper," will be 

 produced, owing to the sulphate of quinine having absorbed 

 the ultra-violet rays, with the result that the writing is rendered 

 as black on a white ground in the print from such a negative. We 



