THAT CHIMPANZEE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1870, 2 October 1913, Page 3

THAT CHIMPANZEE.

OWIS & GHOSTS.

BIRDS & BEASTS AT THE ZOO,

A WONDERFUL ORCHESTRA.

(By John Crowes, President of the Wellington Zoological Society.) The Hon. Mr. Allen when in England started some inquiries ahout a chimpanzee for the Wellington Zoological Society, but at that time could hear of none on offer.. After Mr. .'Allen left England, however, Mr. Gross, the wellknown Liverpool merchant, wrote to say that ho had one for sale. Now it is generally felt that a chimpanzee would be a great attraction to- our zoo; and that 111 such a place as Now Zealand many of our studious young people that do not travel beyond the limits,of their native land should have the opportunity to study here an animal of such educational interest and importance as the chimpanzee. But our zoo must be kept witliin moderate limits, and aa a chimpanzee should have a rather large and strong apartment for his residence I am not sure that we shall have the pleasure of seeing him stationed in our midst just yet. If .we could have got the chimpaqzee when Mr Allen was in England it is probable the City Council would have provided suitable accommodation this year.

The Owls. Owls are among the latest acquisitions at the zoo, and 1 must confess that to me .Alley arc very interesting". They havc, ; ;a. peculiar kind of beauty, and associations hayo • invested them with that ghostly kind of" infatuation of which every person feels half afraid, and yet which every pbrson likes to feel. The Cornish people when 1 was a boy among them, were very partial to ghosts, and ghosts and owls and caves and old church towers overgrown with ivy,' and open-roofed barnß, and lofts, and linhays, wero all weirdly mixed'- in the memories and yarns of Cornishmen long before* Tregelles Immortalised the owl that Rozy I'aul and Zacchy Martin shot When haying fired at an owl at night they thought t'liey had shot a cherubim. The eyes of an owl in the moonlight have a rather suggestive gleam.about them. .'Well,' two rather good specimens of the owl family have recently bc-eu placed in tile Wellington Zoo.

My Juvenile Friends.'~'T always like to hear-people praising the juveniles. I question whether any girls and boys in the world have ever keen more foolishly defamed than the children of New Zealand have. As far as ray observation and experience have extended, and I have seen our young people in school, and in tlie shop, and on the farm, and. at play; and have addressed them in considerable numbers and under various circumstances, they/have been as attentive, respectful, reverential, and lsind as any girls and boys I : have ever seen. Of course. I speak generally and on'the- average. I whs therefore pleaspd to hear Mr. Langridge, the Curator of the Welling-, ton Zoo, say that lie did not believe that any curator in the world has less trouble than he has to keep children from teasing or injuring animals. And it was very gratifying to me a littlewhile. ago to hear a schoolmaster oxpress the opinion that our Zoo has been the means of greatly improving the feelings of children towards the lower orders of creatures.

Nesting. ■ It -may bo that at times captivity is irksome to some bird 3, as seclusion is to kings and queens and little princes and princesses, but I question whether a groat majority of the birds in the Wellington. Zoo do not severally got much and less suffering in a year than docs the average bird that frolics in the outer world of freedom. But be that as it may, most Zoo birds in the spring wisely work away monotony and give no time to melancholy. _ The bower-bird at the first sign of spring, and/even before that came set Himself to make , a bower, so that should a stray lady member of the. bower-bird family happen to wander Wellington-way, she might be lured to share with him the bliss of mutual affinity in circumstances not unlike those amid which the wild birds play in the haunts of their natural territory. Two budgerigars, anticipating an. early spring, nested in winter and sent forth a family of three full-fledged fliersweeks ago. In the Zoo there are three storks; generally two of them reside at one end of an enclosed wooded gully which is connected with the Zjo lake by a-waterway under ai bridge; the other moves about in lonely seclusion away up at the. other end of thei gully, but all of them have recently been at work carrying, sticks for nest-building. The ibises also have been collecting twigs and placing them in order to found a liost. _ Ducks have nests and arc sitting, drawing attention to the much-discussed problem of colour protection. Tho silver pheasants, making but little pretence of -nesting,, have commenccd laying.; A wonderful exhibition of nests is growing in the Zoo, and soon visitors will be able to seo doyes sitting' on nests of twigs put; together in tho most slovenly fashion, and weaver-birds carefully weaving their nests with wonderful precision. Many young birds may be expected within the next few weeks; but many of the nests in course of construction can never be tenanted. Male birds of some kinds are more sliowy : than females, and of others, males are, I think, stronger than females, hence merchants get larger supplies, of males than females, and patrons. of our Zoo can purchase and present more males. Be that as it may, tho fact-is evident that several of the busy builders in the Wellington Zoo have no mates.

Muslo in the Zoo. The varieties of music in a zoo are numerous. To persons who like loi|d music and love lions, as I have always loved them, there is music in a concert of lions. The emu seems to like his own music, and there is a peculiarity about his note which moved one of tho members of our Zoological Society to write a very interesting paper on it. The laughing jackass is a very interesting old chap, and 1 must confess that I like the music of his laugh. Then there is the piping crow, or Australian magpie. There are two species of this kind of bird in our Zoo, and their notes are wonderfully rich ,iind powerful, and sweet and various. One of the birds is a good mimic, and sometimes in 'the Zoo concert, ( jives a rollicky, unique, and interesting monologue. But the greatest variety of sweet sounds is to bo heard in the small birds' aviary. Hero the canaries pour forth tho melody tlicy aro to happy to contain, the Pekin nightingale whistles a few sweet notes, fit to bo compared with the delicious, never-to-be-forgotten strains of its illustrious English rival; little finches from many lands join in the rapturous unison, and the glorious troldfinches sing so that they remind us of Cowper's happy prisoners of a bygone age: Singing "as blytlie as finches 'sing That flutter, loose on golden wing, And frolio where they list." Aye, and away from here, down by the pond, the storks remind-us of the superb Christy Minstrels we used to hear at St. James's, London, in the good , old days when in tho minstrelsy the mooking bird whistles to an accompaniment of "bones." The storks have no musical muscles, but the solid, sombre-looking sanj of genius must.

have music, and they make it with their bills. Awoimerful orchestra, deliciotisly natural and well attuned, is a zoo in spring.

Flaming Beauties. The Newtown Zoo is a glorious place in spring and summer. .J.ust now the Mandarin drakes arc in perfect plumage; tho pheasants (golden, silver, Lady Amhersts, Mongolian, Swiiihoe's Kaleage, and hybrid) yield a show of hues and shades and tints and glows of glossy beauty that, When seen moving in the gleaming glinting sunshino between the leafy evergreens in the plicasaiitrv, baffle all attempts at word description. The bower-bird is in fine condition; the weavers are gradually colcuring, fascinating their numerous admirers as they watch them; the flamingoes begin to plume themselves and as they arrange and rearrange their plumes showing themselves white in one n.inute and in another so transformed as to clothe themselves with pinlc, effecting their change of colours, by momentary re-arrange-ments of their wings and the white plumes with which they too generally cover them seems magical; tho paradiso duck and Gargony teal; the Ibises and dozens of .species of beautiful finches with numerous other ornithological glories render the Zoo glorious. I have seen the flamingoes dozens of times, but only once have I seen them oxhibit their beauty to perfection, and that was once when Mr. Castle and I happened to stroll up when the birds were playing and showing to each other. Time after time I have appealed to get somo lady Amhersts and some Reeves's pheasants. Lady Amhersts have come at last—who will get tho Reeves's? Somo of the readers of Tub Dominion have money; and some of them travel: what better employment could they find for themselves or their money than that of getting a pair or two of Reeves's pheasants for the Wellington Zoo?' I would also hint to travellers that they could excite tho gratitude of lovers of beauty in New Zealand by procuring and giving to the Wellington City Corporation, through my society, a few first-class birds, to improve New Zealand's strain of Lady Amherst's pheasants.