WELLINGTON ZOO.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 9

WELLINGTON ZOO.

NEW ATTRACTIONS. THE HON. JAMES ALLEN'S REPORT. TBv John Crewes, President of the Wellington Zoological Society.l Little Mick has always been the most popular monkey in the Zoo. ' Now he has a suitable companion that he will soon bo able to play with. His mother has just presented another baby, a bright-eyed, (sharp-looking, healthy little monkey. Who will look into the healthy eyes of that truthful little new arrival, born in Wellington in winter, and dare to defame our salubrious climate? But the newborn monkey is not the only now attraction in the Zoo. We have recently added to our collection of birds another flamingo and two European cranes. Thanks to Mr. Minchin, the director of the Adelaide Zoo, his friend Captain Macdonald, trading between Australia and India, Mr. Lo Souef, of the Sydney Zoo, tho officers of the Huddart-Parker liner Ulimaroa, and the curator of tho Wellington Zoo, the ■Wellington Zoological Society has, ■ with the hearty concurrence of tho Wellington City Council, secured another flamingo, and has introduced to our New Zealand girls and boys two European cranrs. The birds are healthy, but having recently come through one or two trying voyages on wintry seas, are not like the lilies of the field arrayed more gloriously than Solomon was when he had his best exhibition robes on. .

Mr. Allen could not bring a chimpanzee from England, but he brought what, at this stage, is of more importance to the Wellington Zoological Society: he brought a lot of valuable information which the society will deal with at the earliest opportunity. Matters of momentous importance are moving in the zoological world just now, and my society has great reason to be proud and grateful at having influenced a member of the New Zealand Government to get into close contact with s-omr of the greatest and most practical of li • UK mologists at this critical time in the world's history. . 1 As I am writing this paragraph there comes, in a Wellington newspaper, a report of the capture on the West Coast of a grey kiwi; described as "a very' rare, very interesting, and, it must bo confessed, a. very comical member of the Dominion's avifauna." Now, a grey kiwi is not a very rare bird; but we are told that tho kiwi captured on the West Coast and afterwards placed in tho Canterbury Acclimatisation Gardens, at Christcnurch, "is grey in colour, but is spotted with yellowish, white." "Tho grey kiwi" (Apteryx oweni) is "grey, spotted with yellowish _ white, the spots 'forming bands," but this is not a very rare bird. If the kiwi at Christchurch is a "great spotted kiwi" (Apteryx haasti), it is a very rare ' bird, and should be placed in a sanctuary. 1 Tho preservation of the great Spotted kiwi, and the tuatara, and a few of the other members of New Zealand fauna that are verging on extinction, requires immediate attention, as does also the preservation of several rare animals in other parts of the world. Tho Hon. Mr. Allen in fulfilling His promise' to comply with the request of my society, submitted to him just before he left England, has got into communication with some of tho leading zoologists of the world, who have the preservation of the fauna, of several countries at heart. My society will carefully consider the large amount of important data collected by him, ani I confidently expect that the results of our co-operation will be far-reaching and satisfactory to all concerned.