Stray Notes



75



STRAY NOTES


Recent importations have included a splendid lot of Australian

birds, and as these have been very scarce for years past aviculturists

have had an opportunity of renewing their stock of old favourites.

Messrs. Chapman of Birmingham and Rogers of Liverpool have both

had considerable stocks of these, and the Zoological Society has been

able to secure a few which were specially wanted.


Cat-birds.— The Australian Cat-bird is one of the Bower-birds

and a very rare species in captivity. It is of a leaf-green with

lighter spots, and appears to be the only Bower-bird that does not

construct a bower. Its name is derived from its peculiar call, which

is a very good imitation of a cat fight. Its home is in the jungle-like

scrub of the coastal regions of New South Wales, and the Zoo has

secured the only pair that arrived.


Regent Birds.— It is several years since the Zoological Society

has possessed the Regent Bird, another of the Bower-birds, and when

in colour perhaps the finest of all, clothed as it is in gold and velvety

black. Three good immature birds have been obtained, but at present

we do not know their sex, and it takes three or four years for this

species to reach maturity.


The older members of the Avicultural Society will remember the

delightful articles by the late Reginald Phillips, published in this

journal in 1905 and 1906, describing the successful breeding of this

species in his garden at Kensington.


The Satin Bower-bird. —Of this well-known and handsome

species the Zoological Society has secured a single male in full adult

dress, a state that is probably not arrived at before its sixth or

seventh year, the immature male, like the female, being of greenish

colour. The eye of the Satin-bird is of a beautiful sky blue. On

many occasions has this fine bird constructed its bower in the

Western Aviary. Parallel lines of twigs, stuck into the ground, form

the bower, and the bird is never tired of decorating this with bright-

coloured objects—flowers, shells, and so forth.


The Pied Grallina. —This is one of the commonest birds in

Australia; coming into the public and private gardens it is very

conspicuous in its black and white plumage, and as a rule it is tame.



