ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Harely seen in ciipl 



inMndi.D'rs saki 



vilv aiicl lenKirkiilik- lo 



its li>iig silky li: 



would appear able to endure considerable cold 

 niid exposure, but close examination shows the 

 lireast and abdomen to be devoid of the flowini; 

 pelage that covers other parts of the body. 

 Our specimen came from Peru and was found 

 at an elevation of 1 ,000 feet, on the eastern 

 slopes of the Andes ; but this does not imply 

 that animals of the kind particularly frequent 

 elevated situations. The woolly monkey, and 

 (ithtr s])ecies of ordinary jjelajfe occur to eleva- 

 tions of three thousand feet. A i)hotogra]5h of 

 Humboldt's S;iki is publislud in this lunnber of 

 the Bulletin. 



A Tame Ir/iuiiia. — Among the South Ameri- 

 can exhibits is an iguana that is remarkably 

 tame and intelligent, a combination not usually 

 to be noted among the re|)tiles. This linard 

 persistently follows Keeper Palmer about the 

 sandy yard, jumjjs ujxju his back and content- 

 edly roosts on the man's shoulders. When Pal- 

 mer enters the corral with a pan of food, this 

 iguana is at once at his heels, demanding first 

 choice from an assortment of chopped beef and 

 beaten eggs, lettuce and bananas. It prefers to 

 be fed from the kcc))er's fingers, and if the at- 

 tention is not bestowed, appears quite at a loss 

 to understand the inattention. Keeper Palmer 

 reared the specimen from an emaciated and 



uiiscrablf .-irriv.-il tliat had starved for weeks on 

 its journey from \'enezuela. 



A'ciC Amphihiaiis.— -The collection of auipliib- 

 ians has been further strengthened by repre- 

 sentatives of species not previously exiiibited 

 iu the Reptile House. Several fine specimens 

 of Drayton's I'rog, (liana drai/toiii) . recently 

 arrived from southern California. They .are as 

 l.irge as a fair-sized eastern bull frog, of n rich 

 I liocolate brown above, while tiie underside is 

 p.ile pink, which hue fuses into rich scarlet be- 

 neath the thighs. Another accession is a bafcli 

 of Indian toads [liiifo malanostictiis). They arc 

 r.ither smooth-skinned and |)ossess a curious, 

 I rown-like protuberance on the head. From 

 Hr.i/il we have a large tree toad, known techni- 

 lally .IS Hyla iH'inilosa, which has a very coarse 

 skin and evinces the peculiar characteristic 

 when annoyed, of exuding a foamy fluid from 

 skin glands. In an adjoining cage is a noisy 

 batch of the gray tree toad, found locally, and 

 recently collected at night by our keepers when 

 the toads were loudly chattering during con- 

 tinued warm and damp weather. Rarest among 

 (he new amphibians, is a s]iecimen of the Snaji- 

 ping Salamander (d iirinupliiliis porplii/riliiKs) . 

 from the Catskill mountains. Beyond its cus- 

 tom, unusual for a salamander, of angrily snap- 

 |)ing when annoyed, its habits are practically 

 unknown. 



Solving a M 1/ sic ri/.--V or a week or more the 

 kee])ers in the Rej)tile House were puzzled by 

 .in occasional whistle that appeared to come from 

 .in o|)en window at the southeast corner of the 

 building. The men decided that one of their num- 

 ber was endeavoring to perpetrate .i joke. Every 

 member of the reptile house st.itf had gone to 

 that window, not once, but many times, to fath- 

 om the mystery. At first the keepers thought 

 that visitors desired to ask when the building 

 would be oiiencd. as the whistle usu.illy came 

 ,1 few miiuites before nine, the time for unlock- 

 ing the main doors. The solution lame one 

 morning when Keepers Tooiney and Deckert 

 were spraying some small am|)hibi.iu cases tli.at 

 had been tem])or,arily left on the window easing. 

 Most of these contained sal.amanders hidden in 

 sphagnum moss and all of tlieiu .ihsolutely 

 voiceless creatures. The une.iiiiiy whistle was 

 heard to issue from one of the small cases. 

 Digging up the moss, the men found a single 

 sijecimen of the narrow-mouth frog, from Trin- 

 idad. In size it was not larger than one's finger 

 nail. It was ])laced in a j.ir in .mother |)art of 

 the building and next morning demonstrated 

 liow it bad been the cause of so iiiiuli investi- 

 g.itiou. The morning spraying of the plants 



