N. Wharton-Tigar—The President's Garden Party



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too wonderful flying about in the ideal surroundings, so do the Weavers

and Wydahs, many of which were still in full colour, the Giants in

two varieties were lovely ; also Grenadiers, Napoleon, Taha,

Reichenow’s, Cinnamon, Yellow-backed, Masked, Paradise, Red¬

shouldered, and Madagascar.


Other birds in these aviaries were various Bulbuls, Silver-eared

Mesias, Laurina’s Mesias Dyal Birds, and Shamas, Fairy Bluebirds,

always lovely, Regent and Satin Bower-birds, Evening Grosbeaks,

Hoopoes, Sulphury Water Tyrant, and the very graceful Fork-tailed

Tyrant, I called it Scissor-tailed last year ! There are also beautiful

Kingfishers, various Partridges including Roulroul, Madagascar,

Mountain, and Californian ; also Chinese Painted Quail and numerous

Waxbills and many kinds of small Finches including the rare Natterers

Finch.


Mr. Ezra has a fine collection of Parakeets, many of them breeding ;

there are two varieties of Ringnecks, the Green and the Yellow.

Alexandrines, Yellow, Blue, and Green ; Bayards, Malabars, Queen

Alexandra most beautiful of all, Hooded, Elegant, Pennant, Mealey,

Rosella, Barraband, Green-winged King, and Crimson-winged.


There is a fine pair of the rare Guilding’s Amazon and a pair of the

lovely Leadbeater’s Cockatoo. In special aviaries for breeding there

are pairs of Formosan Blue Pies, Hunting Cissas, Short-tailed Ant

Thrushes, Racket-tailed Drongos, Dwarf Hermit Thrushes, Rothschild’s

Grackles (bred here already), pairs of Mountain and Western Bluebirds ;

and in solitary splendour an Albino Carrion Crow.


After viewing and duly admiring this magnificent display of birds

Mr. Ezra took us through some of the Crane enclosures ; besides

a flock of the exquisite Demoiselles and many Sarus, he has the graceful

Stanleys, the Manchurian, and others ; and he showed us with pride

a pair of Mexican Sandhill Cranes, he had recently received as a present.

I understand the Sarus nest away from home, what a lovely sight they

must be flying !


We next visited the bird house where there were many rare birds

including Paradise Tanagers, Bolivian Yellow-bellied Tanagers,

Strickland’s Shama, Macklots, and the Great China Pitta, the Lesser

Bird of Paradise, and many others.



