ZOO NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1966, 24 January 1914, Page 9

ZOO NOTES.

MAY AND NOVEMBER, DR. ADENEY'S SERMON. PIG-TAILED AND BONNET MONKEYS. (By John Cretres, President of tlio Wellington Zoological Society.) On the evening of Sunday, the 18th inst.,- I was in tlio Courtenay Place' Congregational Cluirch, when Dr. Atlcney..preached a beautiful sermon on "Life.'' Tlio sermon was simple, practical, up-to-date; but "profound, beautiful, and sublime. ■ There was nothing meretricious about it. Appropriately the preacher gave as an illustration an experience he enjoyed in' England on an evening in May. The picture of dear old England in May was not overdrawn. As the preacher gave it wc could again see the trees and shrubs and bushes,' and smell tlio flowers, and hear tlio birds, which wore all so fresli and beautiful and sweet and full of life when our life was young. Now, I am not going to attempt to find any fault in what Dr. Adoney said, I onco was moved to write poetry, by a vision and an inspiration I met in an English wood. I remember the woods and meadows and lanes and parks and coppices of Cornwall and Devon; I can never forget the blossoms, and goldand nightingales of the Kentish fruit gardens; I see again rising up in memory the encliantmcnts of Regent's Park. Thanks to • Professor Adency for the rapture .of a reminder of the glories of England in May in the days when my heart was j'oiing. Only l a man who knows England could speak as the professor speaks and hint at the ineffable experience of a quiet evening in May. But when Professor Adoney suggests that even in . salubrious New Zealand wo have nothing worthy of comparison with tlio superlative enchantments of May in England, lionesty compels _mo to say that Professor Adency evidently knows England well, but has not explored New Zealand. Our Wellfnston Gardens. Dr. Adency should spend a week amid tlie magnificence of some New Zealand forests, or ho should go with open eyes and ears and mind and heart into our Wellington gardens, and thero spend an evening in November with Nature. But he must go open-minded; and not prepossessed by the average Wellington citizen's appreciation of tno charms of our public gardens. A little while ago I' was in our Botanical (jardons when a well-dressed intelligentlooking man looked in and said to a lady who was with him: "I don't think that there is much to be seen in there." Then away they turned. If Christchurch people had such gardens as we have iii Wellington, visitors would hear of them. But I don't think-that-one-lialf of the people of Wellington know what sort of gardens wo nor: do I think that one-half of the other half have thoroughly explored our gardens.■ When the sun-shines in May in England the people go out into the sunshine and enjoy it and revel in it so' that they never forgot it. After that they go into all the world and preach tho gospel of English ; sunshine to every creaHero, in November, we get sunshine so perfect that it once moved an open-hearted Englishman to sav: "Tho climatp of New Zealand would be good enough for-Heaven." .-.But-if wo get i-breezy day-6r-two'bu'r!iioble-'citi-zens forget all'about tho'sunshine, 1 and tell our' Visitors' ouly' that,our favoured city is "Windy Wellington." If Professor Adeney, or other visitors; will go witli open hearts into our. pub-, lie gardens in November they .will never' afterwards suggest, that Nature has endowed any land more richly than New •Zealand. . ..

November Evenings in Wellington. lir our Botanical Gardens an evening in November is as near perfection as anything earthly can bo. But, I will not describo the Botanical Gardens. One evening late in Spring or early in this Summer 1 welit into our Zoological Park. There 1 had an experience of which the Professor's allusion to Now Zealand's Spring reminded me. I will try to give some faint idea of that evening. In a quiet nook, overspread by deciduous umbrageous..trees,l. reclined on a grassy bank, overhung with the • beautiful' greenery .' of NewZealandshrubs, in front of . English' willows, backed.by oaks. The evening was perfect, bright, -cool, still, and clear. Everything above me. and beneath and all around,- seemed full of life; and tho exuberance of life seemed to say, "Amid such conditions as these lifo is full of poetry that must be expressed in music." It was tho hour before tho rest of the evening began, .and, simultaneously, all the animals in tho Park naturally, spontaneously, began to express their feelings: A hundred sparrows, homely English house-sparrows, each with a few simple notes selvedgcd tho symphony. A.houso sparrow , u not a good soloist, ho was evidently horn for hai-mony. A hundred noi3j, hungry sparrows generally are more noisy than melodious. But a hundred well-fed house sparrows, quietly singing themselves to sleep in tho delicious atmosphere of AVellington, an atmosphere such as the birds of Eden saiiy in when the world of birds first touched with avian ecstasy the oars of man, are not to be despised. With them a hundred sheeny starlings daintily touchcd tho air-of evening into tune. Next fifty hedge-accentors, delicato littlo musicians these, touching their vocal chords so gelitly as though.attuned to catch sounds of music from harps of other strung with sunbeams, joined in the strain. Next tho Java sparrows, and tho Loxton weavers, and the. Pekiii nightingales, and tho affectionate budgerigars, and the red-crested cardinal, and the greenfinches, and. tho coral-necked finches, and the African singing finches, and., ilimimerablo cliafi finches - insert their . staves. ■ • Then [canaries and'goldfinches take up tho I strain as though to be. silent were sin, or to die, in such an atmosphere as that of Wellington. Avian Minstrels. Then blackbirds and thrushes, dozens of them, the peers, of tho world's sweet avian minstrels, with notes pure and clear arid liquid, and ricli and tuneful, enriched the symphony as with easo and range that seemed almost supoinatural they gavo volume of sweetness

to the mellifluent- extravaganza ;-'',thntv Nature exuberantly and .. .Voluntarily-; gave for tlio very relief aml-'pjcastircj of giving under the supcrnacuiar -.in-; lluence of that- characteristic WelliiiKj; ton November evening. .. ' Theii/.-'J-tliei swans piped their music ■; into', tho'-: mol{; ody, tlio macaws strained their iw.~ I tralto to the limits of harmony,'., the: pheasants and the guinea-fowl and-thy: peacock all reminded me of ..what an. eloquent Scotch lecturer o»M> said:. "It' is strango that there is no sound,of:. Nature out of iur.c." - The emus, trunipeted, and tlio storks rattled -their long hills, the piping-crow whistled atitl the jackass laughed, while ; the ostrich,.' with a rich baritone liki; the sound.ol a lion subdued by distance, led on t-o. the tremendous volume of bass, with which the lions rounded .up the great musical expression of life charmed out. of Nature's, multifarious musicians, by Wellington's superb- November climatic conditions! To describe one of the best.' days of a Wellington spring would ho a pleasure much too great for my limited ability and capacity, but I hopo that tho hints I have given may stimulate; some favourite of genius to sfiow that while great aro the glories of . the English spring, the climate of England is not equal with the climate, of New Zealand—even of Wellington. . Big, Powerful Monkeys. A few days ago I was asked to submit a price at which my society would agree to purchase some monkeys. I declined the invitation. But later, when I had mentioned tlio matter to tb« treasurer of the society, and had a little conversation with too curator of tho Zoo, Mr.. G'astlo and I thought that ; as tho monkeys offered were of species not represented in our Zoo, we ought to ask the sellors to state a price at- which they would be willing to sell. After awhile all parties concerned agreed, and the monkeys have been purchased and placed in the Zoo. ■, .-V-^ Pis-tailed Monkeys. Two of them are pig-tailed . nionlieys. Tho pig-tailed monkeys are Macaques, or, at any rate, most'people say they are, The Macaques are, wc are told, a genus of monkeys between the Mangabeys and the baboons. Tho meaning and capacity and range of th<i word Macaque, however, must be held over for further consideration. The pigtailed monkey is near the line -of tho baboon, and is a big, powerful monkey.. We are told that in soma places 110 is used to climb the coconut palms, sclect the best fruit 011 them, and throw them down; but some people, who would rob a monkey of the credit of earning an honest livelihood, have suggested that the pig-tailed monkey is mucli too irritable and ferocious to be trusted "'to thrown down coconuts. From what I have seen and heard, however, I infer : that the monkey is kind enough to people who treat him kindly, but .is . a terror to evil-doers. Bonnet Monkeys. In our purchase thero tvero two pigtailed monkeys and four bonnet monkeys. The honliet monkeys also arc Macaques, but have a good reputation. -When my friend. Mr. Castle, and I. went to see our'.-Catarrliini.au friends, agood cliaractcrcd bonnet - -'monkey had badly wounded one., of the females-of his family, and the other of their females had escapcd into the hoine of two big bachelor monkeys, where. she was enjoying peace in safety, under the protection of tlio kindly, but ' much abused pig-tailed monsters. The bonnet monkeys are so named because of tho peculiar l toouc-liko Rrraniremenf of the hair on the top of their heads; but the name seemed much nioro Appropriate when the head-gear of ladies was nearly too small to be noticed than it doos to-day, when some ladies have almost extinguished themselves. under, their hats. ' Another Prediction Fulfilled.. As I foretold that it would, the couu.teiianco of the curator of tho Zoo brightened up beautifully 011 Wedneg-' day. Oivthat day Mr. Langndge wisely married tile daughter of a member of "tho Wellington Zoological Society. ; Another Attraction. My socicty purchased sin monkeys': but only five liavo been placed in tltn Zoo. This is because the six have become seven, and tho most charming little monkevW the lot will bo brought, with her baby, which, being of the bonnet species, should be extremely interesting, to th" Zoo as soon as the vendors can send her.