NOAH’S ARK.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1922, Page 1

NOAH’S ARK.

ARRIVAL OF THE ZOO SHIP. DEVILS, PARROTS, AND BEAUTY ' - 'Birds. " TILBURY, Nov. 14 The White Star liner Medic brought its 800 'Australian and New Guinea animals and birds safe to port to-day ill a freezing mist. The Tasmanian Devil was never in a worse mood. He stripped bis ' teeth and snarled at everybody. The 250 parrots were cheerily voluble. It is the most representative collection of Australasian fajni.a that has ever left the Antipodes and is consigned to jtlic London Zoo, where certain specimens which are needed will find a permanent home, while others wijl be mejre lodgers until they are sold.

Some are to go to foreign Zoos, chiefly in France, Belgium, and Holland, while' others will bo transhipped for antither long voyage—to the Argentine;

Mr A. S. 1.0 Soucf. who represents the Zoos of Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth and was in charge i:f them, values the consignment at between £4,000 and £5,0,0,0. There was a great storm in the Australian pjghjfc, where the only cases of sea’ sickness occur ret) among the seven bandicoots (rare marsupials which it was much dcsjred to get to popdon safely).' They' wepe greatJy distressed anVl three died.

In the bottom of a tank were two very rare fish—lung fish—from Queensland rivers, half asleep through cold ; but on being stirred Up they showed a blunt, whale-like head and an eel’s tail. This species can breathe air or writer. When their river dries, providing they are damp they can live very well on air.

About 100 kangaroos and wallabies thrust soft grey noses through their slats and blinked at the misty panorama of clocklnml. Some huge kangaroo rats and many opossums (the most important fur animal in Australia now), 20 black swans, 8 emus, a cassowary, 12 wedge-tailed eagle'-:, and a handsome pair of white-bellied sea eaglc-s were otlirs of the company.

The reptiles included (> carpet snakes, which in Australia are put into barns and haystacks to catch mice; some wombats and flying squirrels. PICJ2ON CHUMS.

The 150 doves and pigeons included some very beautiful species. A pair of rose-crowned fruit-pigeons were specially sent to Lord Northeliiic, who admired tliein when he went through the Tnronga Park Zoo in Sydney. They are small pigeons with a breast of grey, purple, and yellow', a pale green back, and a crown of rose.

The pair have lived together for five years. When placed in a box with 25 other pigeons for the voyage they slept side by side every night in the same corner, came down together to the food dish, and never mixed with the other pigeons at any time. When one was ill the other left it only for a minute or two to get a little food and then returned to its side. They are inseparable.

Tlie cockatoos include one with the habit of talking to himself at night. Some gorgeous birds ol Paradise astonish.ed everybody, bv taking a cold bath (in their drinking water) directly tlie ship entered the icy weather in the mouth of the Thames. A specimen of tlie podargus (a bird with a frog-like mouth allied to the British night-jar) represents a species which is libelled by its common name of goat-sucker, since it eats only beetles.

DOMESTIC STRIFE. The birds left Australia at a time when normally they would be preparing for nesting, and when they reached the tropics the quails and some of the pigeons made up their minds that spring had come.. They started laying and trying to hatch their eggs. The male birds, seeing the eggs, began fighting furiously among themselves, so that for the sake of all concerned the eggs had to he removed and domestic ventures discouraged.