Zoo Notes 
adult American animal, which is much more 
developed with regard to bisontine charac- 
teristics than is the Huropean species. 
Wa 
THE handsome, somewhat turkey-hke birds 
known as Curassows attract 
considerable attention at the 
Zoological Gardens owing to 
their tameness and striking appearance, 
although they are not brilhantly coloured. 
The bird represented (Craxz globicera) is a 
female, and is mostly brown in colour, the 
male bemg black with a yellow rounded 
knob on the bill. The curassows are mostly 
South-American birds, and spend much of 
their time in trees, their hind-toe, unlike 
that of most game- 
birds, being well- 
developed, and giving 
them a good grip of the 
branches. ‘They also 
build in trees, laying 
only a few eggs in a 
nest of sticks. The 
young perch at once, 
and move actively 
about aloft. ‘hey have 
seldom bred in cap- 
tivity in Hngland, but 
this may be because 
suitable accommoda- 
tion has been wanting. 
However, even in their 
native country they 
are not good breeders, 
which is a pity, as their 
flesh is excellent and their tree-haunting 
habits enable them to procure food, in the 
form of various berries and fruits, not acces- 
sible to ordinary poultry. Specimens which 
had escaped from the menagerie of the late 
ex-king of Oude, near Calcutta, have, it is 
said, been seen wild in the Sunderbunds, and 
it would be useful to make a serious attempt 
to introduce these fine game-birds there. 
Dy 
THE Ostrich shown is an example of the 
South African form of the 
Cape Ostrich. species which lived some years 
at the Zoo, but is now dead. 
It is this race which is kept on the ostrich 
The Globose 
Curassow. 
Photo by W. PB. Dando, F.Z.S. 
SPOTTED CAVY. 
PMU 
farms, and a very valuable account of its 
habits in this condition has been published by 
Mr. Cronwright Schreiner in the “ Zoologist” 
for March, 1897. Having been occupied in 
ostrich-farming for nine years, Mr. Schreiner 
had opportunities of correcting many errors 
about the ostrich which had arisen even in 
scientific works. He points out, for instance, 
that it is a mistake to suppose that the bird 
uses its wings to aid it mrunning. Although 
when starting or when not doing its best the 
bird may run with them raised, when it is 
really going at its best pace the wings lie 
hardly above the back. 
Dy / 
THE Spotted Cavy, as the Paca (Celogenys 
paca) is some- 
times called, 
is one of the largest of 
rodents, measuring 
about two feet in 
leneth. In form, as 
the illustration shows, 
it is much like the 
familiar guinea-pig, or 
common cavy, being 
tailless and short on 
the legs. Together 
with that animal it is 
excellent eating, and is 
much hunted for food 
in South America. 
Like the agoutis, to 
which, rather than 
the cavies, it 1s related, 
it readily takes to 
water under such circumstances. The paca 
shows a very remarkable anatomical peculi- 
arity in the expansion of its zygomatic 
arches—the arches of bone spanning the 
cheek in the skull—into huge bony chambers, 
the interior of which communicates by a 
small opening with the mouth. From 
this curious conformation the paca gets its 
generic name of Ca@logenys (hollow-cheek) ; 
but the use of the hollow appears to be at 
present unknown. 
Another remarkable point about the paca 
is its coloration, of white spots on a dark 
eround, this being almost unique among 
rodents, though it crops up here and there 
Paca 
