1012 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



/ ?'--, 





ALBINO INDIAN PEACOCK 



NOTES FROM THE BIRD 

 DEPARTMENT 



By Lee S. Crandall 



Albino Birds. — Freaks of all sorts seem to 

 have a peculiar fascination for the man in the 

 street, but in the Zoological Park abnormalities 

 have always been excluded as being out of 

 place among a collection such as ours. Al- 

 binoes, however, are too beautiful to be kept 

 under the ban and the Park possesses an un- 

 usual number just at present. Among the 

 birds, there are the white peafowl, turtle 

 doves, and Java sparrows, all representing 

 domestic varieties, and true wild albinistic 

 specimens of two species — the European jack- 

 daw and the American crow. 



White crows are so rare as to have become 

 proverbial; few, indeed, have seen one. Our 

 specimen is not pure white, having the face 

 and some of the primaries infused with black. 

 It came to the Park on January 8, 1913, the 

 gift of Mr. Frank Hart of Doylestown, Pa. 

 During the spring of 1912 a passerby noticed a 

 great commotion among a group of crows. On 

 investigation, the cause of the excitement was 

 found to be a callow nestling, nearly pure 

 white. The wretched bird was being mobbed 

 by the normally-colored birds and would 

 doubtless have been killed but for the timely 

 interference. The crow was taken home and 

 nursed, and now has a place in the Sociecy's 

 collections. 



White jackdaws of remarkable purity of 

 color have been met with in small numbers 

 yearly among the bird dealers, but in the fall 

 of 1912, so many were imported that the 

 curiosity of the writer was aroused concerning 



their origin. Through the courtesy of Mr. 

 Louis Ruhe, a statement was received from a 

 dealer in Austria, which seems to clear up the 

 mystery. His account is translated as follows : 



Regarding the white jackdaw, I beg to say that they 

 are wild birds taken out of the nests while very young and 

 fed up by hand. They come from Moravia, out of the 

 neighborhood of Eibenschitz, where the state roads are 

 planted with enormously high pyramidal poplars, in which 

 are found very old colonies of the daws. The daws habitu- 

 ally build their nests in cavities, but as it would be impos- 

 sible for so many of them to find holes, they have adapted 

 themselves and brood in open nests. The farmer boys at 

 the time when young birds are present, climb the poplars 

 and select birds that are white or marked with white, 

 carry them home, and bring them to market for sale, after 

 bringing them up by hand. 



The size of the catch varies greatly from year to year, 

 the greatest number caught in one year being 110, which 

 was some time ago, but 30 or 40 is the average yearly num- 

 ber, and even this number is found nowhere else. The 

 cause of this seems to lie in inbreeding, as undoubtedly 

 the whole colony originated from a few pairs. 



That these colonies have existed since time immemorial 

 is shown by the name of a village nearby, the name of 

 which in Bohemian is Crow Village; the jackdaw being 

 classed with other crows in this neighborhood, the name of 

 the village would indicate that it received its name from 

 the rookeries. Many museums have inquired regarding 

 the original source of the birds, which leads me to believe 

 that white jackdaws must be extremely rare, as all in- 

 quiries, no matter by whom made, usually come to us from 

 Vienna. 



The birds are pure albinoes, the feathers coming in white 

 after the moult, and red eyes which are found, for instance 

 in white black birds, are never found. Oftentimes white 

 birds are seen to fly from nests which cannot be reached, 

 but these disappear in a short time without being shot off, 

 and it appears that the supposition that such birds are 

 killed by the others is correct. This is all that is worthy 

 of notice. 



Breeding Birds. — The breeding season of 

 1912 was a fairly successful one and several 

 species were reared which previously had not 

 been bred in the Zoological Park. The list 



