Sydney Porter—Notes from South America



289 '



Parrakeets. It must be understood, however, that tiled flooring

and some of the rather revolutionary ideas involved do not necessarily

provide the ideal quarters for Broadtails, or, for that matter, for any

species other than those mentioned. On the other hand they may.

Time and experience will show.



NOTES FROM SOUTH AMERICA


By Sydney Porter

{Continued from, p. 254)


Perhaps one of the most difficult birds to keep in captivity is a

Grebe, but I saw several of these birds on the small lakes in the Buenos

Aires Zoo. I can hardly see how they obtained much fish when there

were so many Pelicans, Cormorants, Egrets, Storks, and Herons about

on the same stretch of water, but they must have obtained their food

somehow, for they looked in excellent condition. The species exhibited

was the Great Grebe, one of the largest of the Grebes, and is more

Cormorant-like in shape than the well-known Great Crested Grebe.


I noticed a few examples of Belcher’s Gull (Larus helcheri) a bird

which seems to be restricted to the coasts of the Argentine ; there

were also some Kelp or Dominican Gulls ; in one of the Duck pens

were quite a few of these Gulls only a few weeks old. I never saw them

being fed with anything, or any food about. I suppose they must have

been hand fed by someone.


In the pen with the Ducks were some Penguins, the Magellanic and

another which I don’t remember and which was very similar to the

Little Blue Penguin from the Antipodes, but it was considerably larger.

In with these Penguins was a large assortment of indigenous Duck,

amongst them were Kosy-bills, Bahama Pintails, Brown Pintails,

Grey Teal, which is one of the prettiest of the smaller Duck, Fulvous and

White-faced Tree Duck, Blue-winged and Yellow-billed Teal, and last

but not least the beautiful little Red Shoveler, a bird I tried hard to



