ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ITEMS OF INTEREST 



A New Chimpanzee. — We have been fortu- 

 nate in obtaining a particularly fine male chim- 

 panzee, and have named this animal "Baldy 

 II." The new arrival is about four years old, 

 and is unusually active and intelligent. He is 

 much inclined to have his own way and exhibits 

 occasional stubborn traits that will be elimin- 

 ated through sympathetic care and teaching. 

 The species represented is technically known 

 as Pan cliimpaiise. 



Life History uf Amphibians. — Several inter- 

 esting life histories are now illustrated in the 

 amphibian series exhibited in the Reptile House. 

 Particularly interesting among these is the life 

 iiistory of the wood frog and that of the leop- 

 ard frog. Owing to the tardy spring weather, 

 our keepers collected the first frogs' eggs 

 some two weeks later than has been the case in 

 four or live years. We obtained our first lot 

 of eggs on the fourth of April, and these eggs 

 hatclied within three days. 



Visitors were much interested in noting the 

 development of the little tadpoles as they grad- 

 ually uncoiled and moved al)out in the eggs be- 

 fore liatcliing. After they emerged they looked 

 like tiny leeches clinging to the empty, jelly- 

 like egg-masses. Succeeding days brought 

 marked changes in their form and actions, and 

 these developments were closely followed by a 

 considerable number of school children who 

 regularly came to the Reptile House to stud}' 

 our specimens. The development of this par- 

 ticular frog is rapid, and becomes complete in 

 the early summer. Tliat of the leopard frog 

 is more prolonged, and the development of the 

 bull-frog tadpoles may take as long as two 

 years, .\mong the life histories prepared for 

 school children tiiis spring will be those of the 

 wood frog, green frog, bull-frog, the common 

 toad, the sjiade-foot toad, spotted salamander 

 and axolotl. 



Tardii Spring. — While really warm spring 

 weather is very tardy in arriving, our observa- 

 tions jioint to this being the safest type of 

 spring, .\bnormally warm days, coming early, 

 tend to excite and open the buds and stimulate 

 the vegetation generally. This is often fol- 

 lowed by sharp frosts which sometimes do 

 serious damage. Thus far there is little indi- 

 cation of s])ring among the trees and shrubs. 

 The only sign of the times comes from the grass, 

 which is becoming very green, and the lively 

 chorus of tree toads from the various pools 

 about the Park. We have transferred a num- 

 ber of these amphibian songsters to the Reptile 



House, and the cheerful notes of the spring 

 "peepers " help to mitigate our impatience to- 

 ward the eccentric weather conditions. 



Trinidad Whip-Snake. — We have recently re- 

 ceived a verj' beautiful example of the green 

 whip-snake from Trinidad. This reptile is 

 about four feet long, of a satinj- leaf-green, 

 and has exceptionally large eyes with a bright 

 golden iris. Tree snakes are difficult to catch 

 because they are both timid and active. The 

 greater number of them are harmless, although 

 some among their number have very small fangs 

 that inject a paralj'zing venom and which is 

 used in subduing birds and lizards. One curi- 

 ous feature of the specimen exhibited is the 

 color of its throat. It has a habit of widely 

 opening its mouth when disturbed, and when 

 in this attitude the throat parts are seen to be 

 of a deep purple color. Our specimen is sat- 

 isfied to confine its diet to small frogs. 



A Fine Brazilian Tortoise. — Another recent 

 arrival is an exceptionally large tortoise which 

 comes from the Roosevelt Expedition, in South 

 America. It represents a species known as 

 Testudo tabulata. The specimen is remarkable 

 in being far over the average in size, and weigh- 

 ing forty pounds. It is evidently a very old 

 example, as the bright j-ellow markings which 

 are characteristic on the upper shell of this spe- 

 cies are altogether lacking. It is contentedly 

 browsing with others of its kind upon lettuce 

 leaves and bananas. 



New Icjtianas. — In early April a batch of 

 very large iguanas arrived from Venezuela. 

 Some of the specimens are nearly si.x feet long, 

 brightly colored and decorated with a row of 

 high standing spines from the neck to the tail. 

 When adults of this species are captured they 

 seldom do well, but we are trying our luck with 

 them owing to the fine facilities offered for 

 sun and exercises in the commodious lizard 

 yards. The new specimens are now exhibited 

 in company with the black Mexican iguana, the 

 banded Central American iguana, and the rhi- 

 noceros igiuina of Hayti. These big lizards 

 can deal a powerful lash-like blow with the tail 

 and our keepers exercise due care in going 

 among them to distribute the pans of food. 

 Contrarv to former assertions the iguanas are 

 not altogether herbivorous. We feed them al- 

 ternatelv from pans containing fruit and lettuce, 

 and a mixture composed of fragments of raw 

 beef mixed with beaten eggs. 



Another Bear Cuh. — Our Russian brown 

 bear that has successfully reared several litters 

 of fine cubs issued from her hibernating quar- 



