Bird Notes jrom the Zoological Gardens. 141


BIRD NOTES FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.


By The Curator.


Although very little of interest has arrived lately we have

been kept very busy amongst the birds, in preparation for the

coming breeding season, when I hope we may beat our record in

the number of birds hatched and reared. The Zoo is anything

but an ideal place for breeding birds. The aviaries are in a

chronic state of overcrowding, the birds can never be kept

properly quiet, and new birds are constantly arriving in the

breeding season, which, for want of other accommodation, often

have to be put in the same aviary with breeding birds, an arrange¬

ment that militates strongly against the chances of success.


Our greatest success during the last two years has been

with Pheasants and Waterfowl, and this year we have a better

collection, or rather a collection better established than in either

of those years; but, unfortunately, we have very little rearing

ground. This year our Pheasants will have to be reared in one

of the new goose paddocks as they were last year, but then the

ground had never before had birds on it, whereas now it is

decidedly stale.


At this time of year the Waterfowl have to be carefully

looked over and the pairs arranged so that those kinds which

are likely to disagree may be placed on different ponds. All nest

boxes have to be examined and lined with a fresh nest of turf

and leaves. In the same way the Pheasantries have to be gone

through and provided with faggots of brushwood, behind which

the liens can lay, and the breeding pens selected and arranged

so that no further shifting has to be done until the breeding

season is well over.


The Great Aviary has been overhauled and a special

arrangement of small mesh wire netting and curved zinc, fixed

all round to render it as far as possible lat-proof. Ever since I

have known this aviary it has been more or less over-run with

rats, no attempt having been made to keep them out when it

was re-wired some six or seven years ago. It will be a great

thing for the birds if we can succeed in excluding these pests.


Since my last notes appeared the only arrival, new to the

collection, has been a Yellow-rumped Hangnest (Pseudoleistes



