HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
59 
her pouch, being almost jet black. The young one 
is also very dark coloured. 
The Phalangers brought over in this shipment 
would appear to offer a favourable opportunity to 
some enterprising American fur farmer who wants 
to start a 'possum ranch, there being nineteen 
grey Australian opossums, one Albino, and ten of 
the dark form from Tasmania. Also seven Squir- 
rel flying Phalangers, a pretty and interesting 
little animal, which few menagerie owners have 
included in their collections. 
Of the other peculiarly Australian class, the 
Monotremes, two animals left Sydney, one Duck- 
billed Platpus and one Echidna, or porcupine 
anteater, but only the latter arrived alive. 
The African Elephant, "Daisy," a young fe- 
male about five feet high, was obtained by Mr. 
Joseph in Rhodesia in 1914, and she created quite 
a sensation by following her owner about the 
streets of Victoria and into the office of the Steam- 
ship Co., but she has now been sent, to form the 
nucleus of another Zoological Collection to be 
made in a city park. 
A pair of Black Buck from India and four 
Cape Hyrab complete the Ungulata contained in 
this lot. 
Two fine Indian Sloth Bears, one Himalayan 
Black Bear, one large African Leopard, also four 
red foxes of British stock acclimatised in Austra- 
lia, and an albino animal of the same species, 
make a carnivorous variation to the mainly Mar- 
supial tendency among the mammals of this con- 
signment. 
The birds brought over on the " Niagara" will 
compare favourably with any collection ever 
shipped this way across the Pacific. Raptores 
were, however, but poorly represented, although 
there are six fine examples of the Wedge-tailed 
Eagle Aquila audax G.I., some adult and some in 
brown immature plumage. The Passerines were 
a mixed lot, the most interesting to my mind being 
eight White-winged Choughs (Corcorax Melan- 
orhamphus) of Australia, and two Pied Crow 
Shrikes (Strepera gramlina W), another corvine 
bird from the same country. There were also 
twelve Australian Magpies, one Albino Magpie, 
and two Butcher Birds (Cracticus destructor), and 
one Salin Bower Bird. 
The small bird boxes were filled with the 
following : — one hundred Grey Java Sparrows, 
ten Plum Heads, twenty Double Bars or Bichenos 
Finch, eight Japanese Grosbeaks, four hundred 
Zebra Finches, nine Red Heads, one hundred 
Chestnut-breasted Munias, one hundred Diamond 
Finches, four Parson Finches, and eight Parrot 
Finches (Ejrythrura psittacea) from New Cale- 
donia, seven Emeus, two Australian Native Com- 
panion Cranes, one White Necked Crane, four 
Common Cranes, two> Demoiselle Cranes, two 
Australian White Ibis, one pair of Straw-necked 
Ibis, and two Thicknees or Australian Stone 
Plover, make a creditable collection to grace the 
large bird paddocks of any zoological park. 
There were also three specimens of the Col- 
lared Plover (Zonifer tricolor Vuill). There were 
six species of Game birds, including two Mallee 
Fowl or native pheasant Lipoa ocellata, and four 
Talegallas or Brush Turkeys. The others were 
seven Stubble Quails, one Painted Quail, four 
Golden Pheasants, sixteen Ring-necked Pheasants 
and three Blue Water Hens. 
The aquatic birds were a fine lot, and the 
most attractive of them all is a bird very seldom, 
if ever, before kept alive in captivity, that is a 
specimen of the Giant Petrel (Ossifraga gigantea), 
and this wandering denizen of the limitless South- 
ern seas has settled himself down in a most domes- 
ticated manner; we have christened him "Sailor," 
and he comes when called, with outstretched wings 
and waddling gait, to receive his daily rations of 
chopped up horse meat. The three Black and 
White Australian Pelicans are a more showy spe- 
cies than the all white birds usually seen in Public 
Parka. 
Of the Anatidae there arrived eight Black 
Swans, fourteen Maned Geese, three Cape Barren 
Geese, two African Spur-wing Geese, two Austra- 
lian Black Duck, two Ruddy Sheldrakes, two 
Whistling Tree Ducks, two Drakes of the New 
Zealand Paradise Duck, four Mountain Duck, and 
a large bunch of Clucking Teals, Mandarins and 
Pintails. 
When we go into a well filled parrot house 
and note the many attractive forms and brilliant 
and many coloured plumes of its often garrulous 
and restless inhabitants, the mind naturally turns 
to the varied localities from which they have been 
collected, and the eye sees in imagination the 
primaeval forests and sunlit groves of many a 
tropic isle. But it is not only from their natural 
habitat, or from the educational point of view, 
that the public take an interest in these birds, as 
large numbers are purchased by private individ- 
uals who like to keep cage birds as pets, and Polly 
or Cocky, in his fancy cage is often seen to oc- 
cupy the bay window overlooking the front garden 
or some cosy nook in the back parlour where his 
linguistic efforts amuse both the family and their 
visitors. The birds on the "Niagara" were of 
many kinds, both wild birds by dozens in wooden 
travelling boxes, and rarer birds, Famed or Talk- 
ing, carried in the ordinary wire cages of the 
shops. Two Madagascar Vasa Parrots, in sombre 
grey dress, occupy one wire cage, gaudy, green 
and red King Parrots in others, a hen specimen of 
the Princess Alexandria Parrot, and a Crimson 
Wing from Australia, Green Eclectus from the 
spice islands of the East, and a pair of Kea Par- 
