NATURAL HISTORY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2522, 24 July 1915, Page 11

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES

(By John Castle, Hon. Secretary of tho Wellington Zoological Society.) The Elliott Pheasant. Some birds are very shy and wild when placed amid new conditions, while others quietly adapt themselves to changed circumstances. The fruit pigeons that wore brought from Samoa to the. Zoo will already peck food from the hand of their keeper, and some of the pheasants in the Zoo are beautifully docile; but the magnificent peacock was very wild for a long time after lie arrived, and the crossbred pheasant (Amhorst-Goldon) could not duriug tlie first season he was in the Zoo grow a respectable tail, because ho kept so close to tho boarding of his domicile. Now tho hybrid Amherst has a beautiful tail, and, although not yet bo'd, displays his charms publicly enough at times; but the Elliott pheasant, said to be the only ono in the Dominion, hides his variegated splendours behind a bunch of broom. However, ho is in the Zoo, and, probably, he will some day call forth such exclamations of admiration as bis more confident neighbours now evoke. Ho is a beautiful bird, but not vain when among human critics. The Young Kangaroo. The young kangaroo is very small when it is born, so -wo are told, and if we may believe what wo hoar and read the little thing is put into a large pouch and stuck on close to the teat from which the midget draws its nourishment. There it lives and grows, in hidden security and gloom, until feeling its instinctive curiosity stirring it peeps through the elastic opening at the top of the pouch. Later it puts its sleek iittlo head out, and may bo seen feeding on grass while straining to reach from the mother's pocket to tho ground. Afterwards it gets out and stretches-the limbs that had so long been cramped, but at the slightest sign of danger back it lumbers into the pouch. At that stage the young red kangaroo in our Zoo had arrived when last I mentioned it, but now it has reached tho last stage of its infantile development, and may daily be seen having its head in the pouch and its body out. There it sucks while the fond mother tenderly caresses while restingher short forelegs upon'her fondling's back. I will not now discuss tho question why are the forelegs of a kangaroo so short, but must say that to the mother they fit to perfection as she suckles her young. Another Welcome Exhibit. Within. recent times the days of record attendances at the London .Zoo have generally been when collections of animals loaned' by our King attracted the attention ancl excited the admiration and gratification of His Majesty's subjects. Tho Wellington Zoological Society having noticed that, long maintained a hope that the time would come when the Government of our Dominion, if not His Majesty tho King himself, would honour our Zoo .'with a loan, if not a gift, of some interesting animals. iMy society'.was delighted, therefore, with what our Government did in founding our aquarium;, we rejoiced again when the collection.' of birds, received from Samoa was placed in the Zoo, and now we are glad to notice' that the Hon. R. H. Rhodes has kindly arranged for the Government to lend a very interesting collection,. consisting of more than 20 animalsj mostly birds, to be placed on exhibition inVtho Zoo. This : collection comprises 0110 racoon,, one kaka, 0110 snow goose, one shag, and one Canadian wood duck, representing five species that as far as I know.have never beforo been represented in our Zoo. Then there are some Ted and green parrakeets, a peacock, two pukeko, all of which we have long been eager to procure, and representatives of several other species that aro popular wherever they aro seen.