ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



MAOKI.I.AN ITLAND 

 ilky hen, despite her diminutive 



SK AND FOSTER MOTHER 



hatched the four goslings (shown in the picture). 



The laughing gulls in the flying cage are 

 among our most satisfactory exhibits. They are 

 always immaculate and their raucous voices are 

 never still. Some of the older individuals have 

 nested for several years but with little success. 

 Pelicans and herons developed a great fondness 

 for young gulls, and hustling the harassed par- 

 ents from their nests became a favorite sport 

 with others. We finally adopted the expedient 

 of surrounding a labyrinth of paving stones 

 with a ring of stout wire of small mesh, with 

 openings cut at the bottom for the passage 

 of the gulls. The latter birds took to it at once 

 and several pairs nested during the first season. 

 Still the babies mysteriously disappeared, and 

 after much watching we found that great herons 

 and ibises were forcing themselves through the 

 entrances, apparently far too small for birds of 

 such size. Last spring we remedied this defect 

 and two young gulls were added to the collec- 

 tion. 



Our faithful old emus have nested twice, rear- 

 ing a single youngster of the first brood and 

 three of the next. Strangely enough, a year of 

 quiescence always follows one of breeding. The 

 emus nested for the first time in 1915, rested in 

 1916, and laid again in 1917. The actions of the 

 birds are a certain index of their intention, and 



if all goes well we shall have another emu brood 

 in 1919. Whether or not this strange habit is 

 common to all emus appears not to be known, 

 it seems perfectly normal in our pair. 



During the past season, probably our most 

 happy result was the rearing of three Magellan 

 upland geese. These are beautiful birds. The 

 male is chiefly white and the female chiefly 

 chestnut; both birds being delicately stenciled 

 with narrow bars of black. Our pair nested in 

 1917, but because of wet weather and vermin, 

 the young which hatched were not reared. The 

 next spring we decided to experiment and bold- 

 ly placed the four eggs under a diminutive silky 

 hen. The little creature could barely cover the 

 great eggs, but sturdily stuck to her post, and 

 hatched four fine goslings. One of them suc- 

 cumbed to a sudden thunder shower, but the 

 three others are now fully grown. After the 

 first week or two, the tiny mother was quite un- 

 able to hover her charges, but she guided them 

 with wise counsel, which they docilely obeyed. 

 Even when the ungainly fledgelings were four 

 times the silky's size, her cluck was law. 



This goose has been bred in Europe, but ap- 

 parently there is no previous record of this 

 achievement in this country. 



