ZOOLOGICAL 
NEST OF A MALLARD IN THE ELEPHANT YARD. 
against the bird’s face will not cause her to 
move in the slightest degree. Even her eyes re- 
fuse to blink. An extended hand may almost 
touch her back, but an instant before the actual 
contact she will rush from her nest with loud 
cries of protest, and will not return until some 
time after the departure of the disturber. Both 
of the tiny houses in the enclosures of the coypu 
rats have been pressed into service as temporary 
nurseries by the ducks. Each is presided over 
by a demure mallard, and neither eggs nor 
young are ever disturbed by the rightful owners 
of the shelters. One of the houses, measuring 
perhaps eight by twelve feet, used for shelters 
for the mule deer, has a duck nest in each of two 
corners. The deer sleep here nightly and seek 
protection during storms, yet seem to exercise 
great care to avoid disturbing their guests. 
But perhaps the most eccentric nest of all is 
one placed in the yard of “Luna” the great 
Indian elephant, close up against a wall, be- 
hind a refuse box. “Luna” seems very proud 
of her little friend, and appears to have no de- 
sire to disturb her. 
Another queer habit, which is doubtless a re- 
sult of semi-domestication, is communal nesting. 
generally participated in by two ducks. These 
birds will either lay all their eggs in one nest, 
each incubating half, or they may build two 
nests, so close together that when both birds are 
sitting, it is quite difficult to say just how many 
there are on the nests. This joining of inter- 
ests is a very strange peculiarity, and difficult 
of explanation, for it seems to serve no particu- 
lar purpose. LS. C. 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN. 665 
A WHITE RHINOCEROS HEAD. 
HREE weeks ago, President Roosevelt ad- 
vised the Zoological Society that he proposed 
to present to the National Collection of 
Heads and Horns the head of one of the white 
rhinoceroses that fell to his rifle in the Lado Dis- 
trict. Naturally the news of this accession was 
hailed with the keenest satisfaction, partly be- 
cause of the extreme rarity of the specimen, and 
partly because Colonel Roosevelt is to be repre- 
sented in the National Collection by a specimen 
that is worthy to stand as a gift from the fore- 
most sportsman of the world. At this moment 
there is not in all America a single mounted skin, 
nor even a mounted head, of a white rhinoceros; 
and we know of only one skull. In a short time, 
however, it is probable that more than one 
American museum will be enriched by the gift 
of a complete mountable skin of a full-grown 
specimen of that species. 
To all zoologists and sportsmen who have not 
closely followed the explorations of Major 
Powell-Cotton in the Lado District, the develop- 
ment of a new territory containing white rhino- 
ceroses has been overlooked. We must confess 
to profound surprise from the news that west 
of the Nile and Lake Albert there is a large 
area that evidently is well stocked with the 
“square-mouthed” rhinoceros, which, until re- 
cently, was regarded as being on the point of ex- 
tinction. The narrative of Colonel Roosevelt’s 
hunting explorations in that territory should be 
awaited by the public with very keen interest. 
Meanwhile, we find profound satisfaction in the 
fact that the National Collection of Heads and 
Horns is so soon to be enriched by another pro- 
foundly interesting, and also imposing, zoolog- 
ical rarity. Wie Ee 
A GREAT ELEPHANT HEAD. 
HROUGH the kindness of Mr. Samuel 
Thorne,—for eleven years a member of the 
Board of Managers of the Zoological Park, 
and a member of the Executive Committee——the 
National Collection of Heads and Horns has re- 
ceived, as a loan, the magnificent elephant head 
shot in British East Africa in 1906 by Mr. 
Richard Tjader, and mounted in the following 
year by Mr. Herbert Lang, at the American 
Museum of Natural History. The acquisition 
of this grand trophy, even as a loan, may well 
be regarded as a notable event in the history of 
the Heads and Horns Collection; and it is a 
