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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Mammals 



W. T. HORNADAY. 



Birds 

 C. William Beebe. 

 Lee S. Crandall. 



Sfpartmrnta : 



Aquarium, 



C. H. TOWNSEND. 



Reptiles 

 Raymond L. Ditmars. 



Published bi-monthly at the Office of the Society, 

 111 Broadway, New York City. 



Yearly by Mail, $1.00. 



MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 



Copyright, 191G, by the New York Zoological Society. 



Each author is responsible for the scientific accuracy 



and the proofreading of his contribution. 



Elwin R. Sanborn, 



Editor and Official Photographer 



Vol. XIX, No. 3 



MAY, 1916 



SUICIDE OF OTA BENGA, THE 

 AFRICAN PYGMY. 



The members of the Society, and other read- 

 ers of the Bulletin^ no doubt will recall the 

 young African Pygmy, Ota Benga, who was 

 brought from the St. Louis exposition with sev- 

 eral others of his tribe to New York City by 

 S. P. Verner in 1906. During his brief sojourn 

 in this citj' he attracted much attention, not 

 only from the visitors to the Zoological Park 

 where he elected to stay, but also of many char- 

 itably-inclined persons, who conceived the idea 

 that the Society had secured the boy as an 

 exhibit. 



As a matter of fact, Ota had a mind of his 

 own, and a decided preference for life in the 

 Park, where he was kindly treated. Upon his 

 return to Africa, Mr. Verner urged Ota Benga 

 to go back with his countrj^men, but Ota re- 

 fused to go. 



Through the offices of a New Jersey colored 

 Baptist association, his desire to be educated 

 culminated in his admission to a southern school 

 for negroes, but the gap between the heart of 

 a savage African jungle and the civilized elys- 

 ian fields of his desire, was too great to be 

 bridged by Ota Benga. The following history, 

 noted b}^ the Lynchburg, (Va.) News consti- 

 tutes the closing chapter of the life history of 

 a savage who vainly tried to leap from savagery 

 to civilization, over the intermediate stage of 

 barbarism; 



"The 3^oung negro was brought to Lynchburg 

 about six years ago, by some kindly disposed 

 person, and was placed in the Virginia Theo- 

 logical Seminary and College here, where for 

 several years he labored to demonstrate to his 

 benefactors that he did not jjossess the power 

 of learning; and some two or three years ago 



he quit the school and went to work as a la- 

 borer. 



"After leaving the college he went into a 

 colored home near the school, and since that 

 had earned a livelihood by working in a to- 

 bacco factory, and by day labor. P'or a long 

 time the young negro pined for his African re- 

 lations, and grew morose when he realized 

 that such a trip was out of question because 

 of the lack of resources. Finally, the burden 

 became so heavy that the young negro secured 

 a revolver belonging to the woman with whom 

 he lived, went to the cow stable and there sent 

 a bullet through his heart, ending his life." 



UNCOMMON WINTER VISITORS. 



In the autumn of 1915, the early arrival of 

 large numbers of migratory birds from the north 

 led us to assume the role of weather prophet, 

 and to make a rather hazardous prediction of a 

 severe winter to come. The heavy snow-fall 

 during February and March, 1916, justified our 

 faith in birds as foretellers of coming climatic 

 conditions, and our hopes of seeing unusual 

 species have been fulfilled. 



Many birds have been attracted to the win- 

 ter feeding stations which have been erected 

 in the Zoological Park. Most of the usual win- 

 ter visitors were represented — blue jays, nut- 

 hatches, chickadees, j uncos, and white-throat, 

 song, chipping, field and tree sparrows. But 

 on February 15 we were honored by a distin- 

 guished guest — a female evening grosbeak — 

 which appeared at the feeding station just out- 

 side the writer's window. The bird stayed in 

 the vicinity for several hours, feeding on cedar 

 berries and the green tips of the twigs. She 

 was quite fearless and easily approached, but 

 finally wandered oft", with the aimless, undulat- 

 ing flight of lier species, no doubt to search 

 for the flock from which she must have become 

 separated. 



The evening grosbeak breeds in western 

 Canada, but in winter gathers in nomadic flocks, 

 which wander about in search of food. It is 

 not uncommon in winter in our northern central 

 states, but up to 1889-90 had never been re- 

 corded in any New England state. At that 

 time there was a very heavy migration of the 

 birds into the eastern states, where they ap- 

 peared in large numbers. With the coming of 

 spring the flocks disappeared, and were record- 

 ed only occasionally until the winter of 1910-11, 

 when a second wave flowed over the east. Gath- 

 erings of considerable size were observed at 

 many points near New York, and bird observ- 

 ers were greatly interested in the phenomenon. 



