ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



R*- ■^ 



roi.l'MBIA BLACK TAILED DEER IN THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



itiliil Ameriiaii iloorwa^ i.nc- cif tlic most tryinff problems that the Society lia 

 four tine snociniens. two horn in the Park. 



will yet be able to live iit uniieated barns, like 

 the Sambars. With our Axis Deer, however, we 

 constantly maintain a small stove during the 

 winter to moderate the chill, as the greater num 

 ber of the fawns of this species are born in 

 midwinter. A few years in captivity here has 

 produced a very noticeable thickening in the 

 ))elage of this species, but the effect is less 

 marked than with the Sambars, and the present 

 animal is less bold in venturing from its shelter 

 durini;- severe cold waves. R. L. D. 



THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE GOOSE. 



Bii C. \ViLi,iAM Beebe. 



Curator of Birds. 



IN the collection of the New York Zoological 

 Park there has been for a year a solitary 

 male Bine Goose. Lately a second speci- 

 men, a female, has arrived, and another pair is 

 shortly expected. 



While the completion of the life histories of 

 our North American birds will give occupation 



to many generations of ornithologists, vet so 

 much has been done, and so many facts already 

 recorded that it would seem that the general 

 outline of this work must at present be fairly 

 well filled ill. It is thus surprising to learn 

 that the life of one of our geese — that family 

 of birds which never lacks attention, at least 

 from sjiortsmen — is almost as little known as 

 when Audubon made the error of supposing it 

 to be the young of the Snow Goose. He writes : 

 "The Snow Goose in the gray state of its plu- 

 mage is very abundant in winter , about the 

 mouths of the Mississippi, as well as on all the 

 muddy and grassy shores of the bays and inlets 

 of the Gulf of Mexico as far as Texas." This 

 ))robably refers to the bird which we now call 

 the Blue Goose, known to ornithologists by the 

 Greek and the Latin names of Chen raerules- 

 cens. 



About this bird and its life and home there 

 has been and still is a mystery which has never 

 been solved. While one of the rarest of our 

 water-fowl, it has occasionally been shot by 

 gunners, both on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. 

 In southern Louisiana, however, this bird has 



