ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 BULLETIN 



Pvhlished by the New York Zoological Society 



\ oi,. XVIII. 



JULY, 1915. 



Number 1 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES FROM PARA. BRAZIL 



Bij C. William ]5iceue. 



Curator of Birds. 



Illustrations by the Author. 



AN fxpeditioii undir tlit- .•mspit-es of the 

 Zoological Society, to Para, Brazil, occu- 

 pied exactly seven weeks, from April 10 

 to May 28, 1915. In company witii JNIr. Inness 

 Hartley and Keeper Atkin the writer sailed and 

 returned on the Stephen of the Booth line. 

 The chief object was tiie shippiiiir and trans- 

 portation of a collection of rare mannnals, birds 

 and reptiles from the Para Zoological Gardens. 

 This was successfully accomplished. 



These Zoological Gardens are one of the chief 

 attractions of Para. They are small but very 

 beautiful, and the collections are well kept and 

 iioused. Very wisely, no attempt is made to ex- 

 hibit any but members of the Amazonian fauna, 

 the sole exceptions at the time of my visit being 

 an Indian peacock and a fully adult chimpanzee. 

 Tiie Museu Goeldi is in the center of the Gar- 

 dens, and Dr. Snethlage holds ca])able sway 

 over both institutions. 



Tile installations are in the form of small 

 open cages, with a volirre of moderate size for 

 water birds. The creatures thrive in this hot, 

 humid climate, and in some cases live for so 

 many years that individuals become well known 

 to tlie visiting Paranese. These exhibits are 

 scattered about tlie grounds, wholly submerged 

 in a magnificent setting of the most luxuriant 

 tropii^al foliage; great clumps of bamboo, sway- 

 ing )ialms and less tropical looking rubber and 

 fig trees, while on the ponds are lilies, and 

 floating Victoria Regia. All these dwarf the 

 living exhibits, and form a botanical background 

 which makes our northern vegetation sink into 

 insignificance. 



One of tiie earliest printed rel)orts on the 

 Jardim Zooloc/ico in the Bulletin of the Para 

 Museum is that of May, 1895. when there were 

 exhibited forty-three individuals of twenty-seven 

 species. The last census published in 1910, 

 enumerates seven hundred individuals and two 

 hundred and thirty species. At present the 

 numbers are far below this. 



A small flying cage is filled witii water birds, 

 and tlie freedom with which they breed is amaz- 

 ing. Snowy egrets, little blue, night and boat- 

 billed herons, wood ibis and scarlet ibis have 

 all nested in this enclosure. At the time of our 

 visit yellow-crowned night herons were sitting 

 on their eggs actually within arm's-reach of vis- 

 itors. Peccaries, agoutis, several opossums and 

 monkeys have also reared young in the Gardens. 

 But. as in the case of most zoological gardens 

 in the world, no details of these interesting oc- 

 currences have been kept, and we can cite only 

 the bare facts. 



In the present serious financial depression, 

 the government of the State of Para is finding 

 it difficult to maintain the Museum and Gardens, 

 and the purchase of the collection which has 

 been acquired by our Society has proved a real 

 boon and insures the support of tiie two Bra- 

 zilian institutions at least for some time. Ar- 

 rangements have been made for additional small 

 slii|)ineiits to be sent north every six weeks. 



Aside from its situation on the equator and 

 at the mouth of the Amazon. Para has an his- 

 torical interest to the naturalist, as being the 

 the first place of residence of Wallace and 

 Bates. I was interested in seeing wiiat changes 



