10 ZOOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 
FEATHER-TAILED OPOSSUM 
This exceedingly rare Australian mammal may be seen by special arrangement in the Rodent Section of the Reptile House. 
New York Zoological Park, but the share which 
fell to our lot included many valuable specimens. 
White-bellied Stork — Most important was 
a White-bellied Stork (dAbdimia abdimi), a 
species seldom seen in captivity and never 
before represented in our collections. It is 
smaller than most storks, but is conspicuously 
marked in black and white, the face and beak 
brilliantly colored in blue and crimson, 
White-headed Vulture.—A handsome 
White-headed Vulture (Lophogyps occipitalis) 
is a welcome accession and the first to be exhi- 
bited alive in New York. It is very rare in 
collections and at the time of the writer's visit, 
was represented in European gardens by a sin- 
gle individual at Antwerp. 
The White-headed Sea Eagle. —(/aliaee- 
tus vocifer) resembles in some respects our own 
Bald Eagle but is more brightly colored, having 
the breast, as well as the head and tail, pure 
white, and the abdomen deep chestnut. The sin- 
gle bird brought by Mr. Haagner is the first we 
have had and like the White-headed Vulture, 
was represented in Europe last summer only by 
a bird at Antwerp. 
Two White-faced Tree Ducks. —(Dendro- 
cygna viduata), brought from South Africa, are 
a reminder of one of the most curious twists of 
geographical distribution found among birds. 
This handsome little duck is found in tropical 
Africa and Madagascar, as well as in the West 
Indies and tropical America. Separated by an 
impassable barrier thousands of miles wide, 
birds from the two hemispheres are in- 
distinguishable and so far have defied the sys- 
tematists who have sought to separate them 
technically. 
The most important shipment of the year was 
that of Mr. Ellis S. Joseph, who arrived from 
Australia early in November. Shipping dif- 
ficulties had prevented transportation since 
1917, so that the accumulation of several years 
was ready when space finally became available. 
The extraordinary interest and value of this col- 
lection probably never has been equalled by any 
other arrival in this country, certainly not in 
recent years. It included species from every 
part of Australia, as well as from Tasmania, 
New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and 
the Caroline Islands. Thirty-five have never 
before been represented in the Zoological Park 
and a good number are quite new to aviculture. 
Among so many striking forms, only a few of 
the more important can be mentioned here. 
Blue Bird of Paradise.— First place must 
be conceded to the splendid pair of Prince Ru- 
dolph’s Blue Birds of Paradise (Paradisornis 
rudolfi). This beautiful bird, so different in 
coloring from other Birds of Paradise, is found 
in the Owen Stanley Mountains of southeastern 
New Guinea, at an altitude of about 8000 feet. 
The inaccessibility of its habitat and the hostile 
attitude of the savage tribes which control the 
interior, account for the scarcity of this bird in 
