ZOO NOTES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2412, 18 March 1915, Page 7

ZOO NOTES

—;—a INQUISITIVE HONEY-BIRDS THE SALAMANDER STORY OF A SPOTTED CAT (By John Crowes, Member of the Wellington Zoological Society.) The .yellow-tufted honey birds that lave been in the Zoo a good while, and become acclimatised and liappy, are now very interesting. When 1 was standing with Mr... Castlo, the secretary of the Wellington Zoological Society, looking into the little plantation in which those lively birds are located, one of them came near to tho wire-netting fence, poised itself just level' with our eyos, and looked intently at us. I then wondered at the little creature's temerity and familiarity., Later, whpn one of the keepers of tllo Zoo saw me watching the honey-birds, he remarked: "They are very inquisitive "birds, those honey-eaters." But I think that when [ mentioned the boldness of the birds';' when I was'in conversation - with Mr. Langridge, the curator of I the Zoo, lately, he incidentally slipped out the key to their inquisitiveness: "They will come, and take flies from between your' fingers," he said. Honey-eaters sweeping honey from plants accidentally : caught flies and other insects as intent' on the honey as themselves; and got to .like insects just aB well as honey'. Our honey-eaters having become quite friendly with their keepers have been; taking flies from their hands, and now they, are willing to bo friendly with other visitors, and, • knowing : that friendship and flies have an interesting' association,' the poising ' birds hope for presents'. ' ' . A Wise Wood-Swallow. . ?. . Becently some Australian wood-swal-lows were placed in the Zoo. One of these has worthily attracted, more than ordinary attention. ' As soon.as he ar-. rived he settled down to get as much pleasure as possible from nis circumstances. In. his adaptablencss he resembles Bess, the 6ca-iioness, and Mary the lioness, and Joe the black lemur, and a few other of the .Zoo animals that Jiav© always seemed determined to .Never meet sorrow half-way. Nor sigh for the things that are past; Other animals may mope and mourn; and waste some time in adapting themselves to ridw conditions; the sensible wood-swallow, like the animals' above.icannot see the good of such a policy. They practise what some'men. eloquently preach; but only preach. And the wise policy . Beoms to naveibecome \habitual, if it was not natural,' to the wise wood-swallow. He seems to have come along gathering in the melodies of the merry, so that now, when ho is a stranger in a [strange'land,- he, if. he has any gloomy memories to utter, is able to' saj;, as a wise' Psalmist once said:—"l will'' set' my dark sayings to' 'music, or litter them on a harp." While unwiso wood-swallows sit on a bare limb of a dead tree, and droop their wings, the wise swallow chooses abranch of living beauty, in a sunny aspect, and gives out, for nis own delectation:and the pleasure of all optimists who like to listen to him,_ a musical medley, or a medley.of musical sounds strangely connected' with-.. 'some that'are not very musical. He seeni3 to know that some people cannot . appreciate first-class music. Hence he by a wonderful gradation connects sounds like, tie rasping of the sharpening of a saw and music sweet as that of a -canary's song. The humoristio wood-swallow has in my esti•mation redeomed.his race from rather dull monotony and honoured the claim .that a modern Australian ornithologist •put forth for the musical birds of bis muoh-misrepresented continent. Interesting Links. Recently the Government of the United States of America opened the' Panama Canal, and thereby united two great oceans or water; and the Government of New Zealand placed in the Wellington Zoo ' some little amphibious animals, afid thereby connected lllustra--tions of two great families of life. The canal is small compared with the oceans io unites, and the little members of the salamandrida family in our -aquarium illustrate a family of things small, whencompared with the illustrations of '.the two 4 great • families : -. it;' connects —the. family that could not live in water and tho family that could not -live out of witor—but the little Japanese newts or newt-like members of the salamandrida are, as is the Panama Canal, very interesting. The Panama Canal may be wonderful_ in itself; and represent a great achievement of modern -science, yet the American Government's great canal is not as wonderful as the collection of adaptations- of Nature that the New Zealand Government has supplied in the handful of nowts or newt-like animals recently placed in our Zoo. The little: salamander is very small, but itcan live immersed in water longor than the dromedary could, and could live out 'of water longer than the salmon could. A camel can live out of water and a salmon can live in it, but the littleJapanese newt or salamander can do both. Nature has oharged the little wonder with such adaptiveness that, in an age more romantic, and poetical than ours, men. seeing how the. .salamander coulcl adapt. itself . to;.'circumstances,, ■slough off' it's whole• skiii .'.and- live !on', swim,-float, .or walk and .live.on ; 'rocks, or between ..them,, exaggerated and said' the,-Salamander . could, live anywhere, ,eveh."in fire.-.' Now: we do not." believe that it .--can live', in fire, but any person that "has .seen the little lizard-like creature rising perpend dicularly in- water must have' admired' the'fiery radiancy with which' the .beauty of the - unassuming . . little . amphibian shines in water. "Oh, come,, mamma," ; said a little, boy to ,Ins. mother ;- "come and see this funny little'thing. - It is like'an alligator." "I looked,' into the ■ tank," said, the mother,; "and .saw a plain little black thing,-that as it walked along on the bottom of tlje" tank seemed like a lizard, but when it raised itself up in the water and looked towards us it 'was beautiful." "Oh, come on," said one boy to another, "it is raining 'and'we must see the fish." ■ "No," said the other boy, looking into the tank where the little amphibians were "moving about, "I want to stay here; I could stay and watch these little things all the day." "I don't see anything in there," said a lady she looked into the new tank.' ',T)ien .several other persons must look in to see nothing, or what elso they might be able to find. 'But," said a> gentleman, "what is there ill. there? I suppose, there is something.'' "There are some very interesting little things in there," I said, and I began to expatiate on tlie importance of our representatives of tho salamandrida family; but soon a congregation gathered, and, as I had no permit to deliver a public discourse in the grounds of the Zoo, I deemed it prudent to desist, aiid the gentleman that sot my descriptive power in motion went away saying, ".Really this Aquarium, is a great acquisition." A Pretty orphan; It is probable' that she never knew her fothor, and she know but little more about her mother, for the mother was shot over in the wild, ill. a rather wild part of South America, when the little orphan that we now have in out Zoo was very young. How pathetic to think that the dear little'cat- was not allowed to starve to death out in her "natural habitat," where hundreds of little catß and. bird? and other animals jjiavs litarvsd, after their parents have

been shot, but where/ia the imagination of some of our poetico-philosophio friends, all little cats enjoy the sweets of liberty Elysian. Fortunately our ■ little cat was /'taken from her natural habitat, was presented to a lady who made a pet of her, and was brought to New Zealand, where she has been placed under the kindly care of Curator Lang-, ridge. At first she was placed in a cage, where during .much; of the daytime she. lay curled. up in a bos of ' straw. That, .howeverj was not a suitable lodging place'for such a cat; and, seoing that this is a very valuable animal,. that was attracting much attention and exciting a great deal of curiosity, Mr. Langridge hurried on the provision of suitable accommodation for h?r. Recently she was duly installed in her new domicile; but, although she was born in a forest, she seems to have the kind of instinct that is strong in our domestic cat (Folis. domestica), the instinct that reverts strongly to an old home, rather than settle in a new ■ place, however superior the accommodation may be; and. consequently our i young wild felis has been very restless since she was placed in her new mansion. However, 1 have no doubt that • she will soon settle- down in her permanent home. But of wha: species is this cat?. This is a question that is agitating,many minds. Somj say it is a Geoffrey's oat (Felis geoffroi)., At .first I thought that it seemed to an- • swer to the description of another cat (Felis guttula),!but now I am*inclinedto" think' that it is a irepresentative of : the-'little. Margay species (Felis tigrina)- ; or a variofcy, or species very nearly al- : -lied- to it. It is not easy to classify some' "of the little South , American cats. Several mistakes have been m"ade by experts; I, 'as' an amateur, therefore, must not speak .very positively. I think, however, •tb it it .. is a Margay, one of' the smallest and rarest of the spotted cats. Whatever it is, it is the kind of cat I like to see in the Zoo, for when any traveller boasts of what he has seen in other Zoos, I just ask "Where did you see a cat like this?" ' And. my learned friend cannot' remember over seeing one.