3 2 9



Weka Rails Breeding in Captivity.



robustus') received on the 14th of July are noteworthy additions

to the collection, for the species is very rarely imported, and has

not been represented at the Gardens for many years. It inhabits

South Africa but is a rare and local species.


The pair of Tickell’s Ouzels (Merula unicolor) presented to

the Society by Mr. Harper in 1900 have nested in the new

Pheasantry. Three young were hatched but one died ; the other

two are doing well, and at the present moment (Aug. 20th) are

just about leaving the nest. The species inhabits the Himalayas

during the breeding season, and descends to the plains of India

during the Winter months. The pair at the Zoo. are probably

the only ones ever brought alive to this country, and the fact of

their breeding in the Gardens is a matter for congratulation.


The breeding season at the Zoo. may now be said to be

about over, and, so far as the birds are concerned, it has been

one of the most successful seasons on record. The credit for

this must go primarily to Mr. Bertling, the Head Keeper, who

has had especial charge of the birds.—D. S.-S.



WEKA RAILS BREEDING IN CAPTIVITY.



The partial success of Mr. Blaauw in rearing young of the

Weka Rail (Ocydromus azistralis) in his Park at Gooilust in

Holland was referred to at page 277. Since the publication of

his notes on the subject in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society

(March, 1899) he has attained complete success, and we are

indebted to him for a copy of a paper read at the Zoological

Congress in Berlin in August 1901.


The pair of Wekas had been kept for some years in the

open, in an enclosure with growing plants. In the spring of

1900 they made a large nest of all kinds of vegetation, under a

beech tree, and both birds sat in turns on the three eggs, which

were whitish, spotted, and streaked with red.


O11 June 8th, after twenty-eight days incubation, young-



