ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ters oil the fourth of April and proudly exhib- 

 ited a single tub which had made so much uoise 

 during the winter aiid early spring that we bad 

 anticipated tlie appearance of two or three 

 youngsters. The young bear was born on the 

 lytli of January and lollowiug the habits of 

 the greater number of bears, the mother re- 

 mained hi the den with it, refusuig all food 

 until the latter part of March, when she occa- 

 sionally appeared to partake of a sparing meal. 

 At birtii the bear cub is the most helpless of 

 mammals, being blind and sparsely clad. It is 

 necessary for tfie motlier to remain with it con- 

 tuiually as the fragile body would be quickly 

 chilled. From the snarls and grunts that issued 

 from the hibernating den our bear keepers of- 

 fered various estimates as to the number of 

 cubs in this litter. We were disappointed to 

 find that all of this noise had come from the 

 single specimen, but hope that his unusual lung 

 power will mdicate the development of a fin e 

 bear. He is a hybrid between the hairy-eared 

 bear L rsiis piscator, and the Russian brown 

 bear L . arctos. 



Elephants in Spring. — We have had but two 

 really warm days the present spring and on 

 one of these we were tempted to give the ele- 

 phants their first exercise this year. Their an- 

 tics were as humorous as energetic and it is 

 possible that some of the trees m the corrals 

 suffered some damage. The African elephant 

 "Khartoum" dug great holes in his yard, and 

 in these he wallowed until smeared with mud. 

 It has often been noted that this mud bath is of 

 marked benefit to the animals' skin and that if 

 they have suffered any skin trouble during the 

 winter the sores quickly disappear after they 

 have had tour or iive days' f'rcXic in the outside 

 corrals. R. L. D. 



Contetnplatiii Purchases. — The followmg ani- 

 mals have been ordered of Carl Hagenbeck's 

 Sons: One pair of Blotched Giraffes, from 

 German East Africa; one pair of Siberian Ibex, 

 two and one-half years old; one male Orang 

 Utan, ten j'ears old, and a male Or3'x Antelope. 

 Aquarium Committee. — Dr. Charles R. Stock- 

 ard of Cornell University Medical School of 

 New York City, has been elected a member of 

 the Aquarium Committee and also a Fellow of 

 the Society. 



Ejcpediiions. — Mr. Crandall of the Bird De- 

 partment of the Zoological Park is now in the 

 jungles of Costa Rica in search of new material 

 for the bird collections of the Park. 



Under the auspices of the Society, also, Mr. 

 L. L. Mowbray has been sent to Louisiana to 

 collect large fresh water fishes in the Missis- 



sippi River, such as extra large sized catiishes 

 and giant gars. These hardy Hshes will be sent 

 to the Aquarium. 



Animal Paintinys. — The Art Committee of 

 the Society announce that both the large oil 

 painting ot a herd of prong-horned antelope or- 

 dered about one year ago of Mr. Carl Rungius, 

 and a smaller painting of a snow leopard, 

 ordered of Mr. Charles R. Kniglit, liave been 

 finished, delivered, and ai-cepted. Both of the 

 paintings have been hung in the Administration 

 Building in the Zoological Park. 



At a meeting of the Art Committee held on 

 March 30, 1914, Mr. Rungius and Mr. Knight 

 appeared. After careful consideration of a 

 sketch in oils, an order was given Mr. Rungius 

 for a painting of mule deer in the Bad Lands, 

 to be of the same size as the sheep and antelope 

 pictures. From Mr. Knight the Committee or- 

 dered a pahiting of a jaguar, a sketch for whicli 

 will shortly be submitted to the Art Committee. 

 Canvasback Ducks on Cayucja Lake. — On 

 March 21, Mr. W. W. Grant sent us the follow- 

 ing interesting note regarding the return of the 

 canvasback to Cayuga Lake. There is no other 

 group of birds on which the beneficial effect of 

 protective laws is so quicklj' apparent as on the 

 ducks and geese. A quotation from Mr. Grant's 

 letter, follows: 



"I am happy to be able to report that this 

 spring the canvasback seemed to be quite plen- 

 tiful, for at this end of the lake as many as 

 300 were seen at one time. 



"The greater scaup ducks were the most 

 plentiful, as many as 500 being seen at one 

 time. Owing to the intense cold this winter, 

 all the duck-feeding grounds were frozen over, 

 and the birds would have fared very badly, had 

 thev not been fed by our game-warden, and 

 other public-spirited men." 



THE BLACK COBRA. 



IN reply to a query of Curator Ditmars con- 

 cerning the Black Cobra, Mr. Garner, who 

 is stationed in the French Congo in the 

 service of the Society, replied as follows: 



"Yes, I know the black cobra with tlie yel- 

 low neck, and iiave heard many thrillers about 

 its habit of si)itting. It is one of tlie most 

 diabolical members of the order of reptiles. 

 Rev. Mr. Reed, an American missionary for 

 many years in the Congo, recounted to me his 

 experience with this cobra with tlie yellow neck 

 and if vou can find this traveller who now re- 



