THE WELLINGTON ZOO

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2442, 22 April 1915, Page 9

THE WELLINGTON ZOO

SOME NEW ARRIVALS. Seldom a week pas3es without an addition of one kind or another being made to the inhabitants of the Zoo at Newtown Park. In company with., Mr. Geo. Frost, the chairman of the Reserves Committee of the City Council, a Dominion representative visited the local repository of natural history, and was there shown some highly interesting newcomers that are bound to attract visitors to the Zoo. One remarkable recruit' to the birdi section is a new specimen of the owl family, called the "chestnut owl," which hails from Tasmania, a huge bird about twice the size of the barn owl, which resides next door. This owl has enormous wings, which it uses clumsily, after the manner of the genus, a thick thatch of streaky brown plumage, a querulous-looking ! 'hooked bill, and two great round, clear brown eyes, which in the daytime appear to look one through and. through, but with extremely limited powers of vision. Like the rest of the family, its habits are nocturnal, and it feeds eagerly on sparrows, rats, and mice. Another chestnut owl is to arrive shortly to keep the stranger company. These owls have been obtained from Hobart 'in exchange for two mallard drakes. A little farther along the same path another new arrival was pointed out in the little brown of the Transvaal, whioh is enclosed with the pheasants. A novelty, said to be the only one in Australasia, is the Brazilian tiger cat, which is striped brown and black, after the fashion of the tiger. It is not yet the size of an ordinary cat, but is only half-grown. Its forelegs are appreciably shorter in comparison with its hind legs than is noticeable in the common cat, arid since it has come to the Zoo it has become tame enough to allow the curator (Mr. Langridgo) to play with it. Mr. Langridge has cultivated a very close acquaintance with two of the three leopards, and thinks nothing of putting his aim through the bars of the cage as far as the elbow to fondle and scratch their necks. The third leopard—ho of the green eyesris labelled: dangerous. The aquarium has been enriched by the addition of a couple of dozen paradise fish (natives of China), which have been presented to the Zoo by the Government. These are tiny fish about inches in length, of a light colour, and almost transparent bodies, which are delicately hooped with pale pink bands, which glisten iridescently in the sunlight. They are next door neighbours to the Japanese little frog fish, with black backs, and bellies of the most brilliant vermillion hue. A promised addition to the collection which is bound to creato a flutter of excitement in Zoo circles are a couple of lyre birds, which are to be supplied by Mr. J. E. Ward, of Balmain, Sydney, in exohange for two kiwis. As the little party left the Zoo the lions and wolves commenced a concert of howls that could be heard half a mile away. "What does that mean, Mr. Langridge—feed time:" questioned one. "No," said the curator, "that foretells a change in the weather; the lions always start and the wolyes_ take up the cry!" True enough within an hour the wind had veered round to the south and the brilliant sky had become overcast with clouds. Wild beasts have instincts beyond the ken of man. Another not generally known fact about carnivorous animals is that the animal caught wild and placed in a cage becomes tame more quickly than those born in captivity. Why that should be so is not easily explainable, but the philosophical mind would reason that the animal which lias had to forage for itself, and l has experienced intervals of semi-starvation appreciates tho quiet comfort and good living provided at the Zoo, whereas those that are born in captivity have a craving for the wild they have never known —that hunger for the unattainable.