Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park 25

Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park 25

THE LARGE BIRD-HOUSE, No. 7.

 

On the northwest quarter of Baird Court stands the largest and the most

generously equipped home for perching birds now in existence. This is

not an unnecessary boast, but merely a brief statement of a fact which

the visitor has a right to know. It was designed on our long-established

principle that every captive wild creature is entitled to life, exercise

and happiness. Our principle of very large cages, with many birds in

each cage, is just the reverse of the views that have prevailed in the

older zoological gardens, even down to the present day. To an important

extent, the cage equipment of this building represents a new departure.

There are many zoologists with experience longer than ours who believe

that small birds thrive better and live longer when installed in small

cages, with only one or two birds in each.

 

[Illustration: WILD TURKEY.]

 

The Large Bird-House, specially designed for Passerine birds, was

developed on the strength of experiments previously made in the

Aquatic-Bird House, and in community cages outside. After three years’

experience with the new building, and a careful tabulation of diseases

and death rates within it, we are able to state that this installation

is a complete and gratifying success.

 

The Large Bird-House is an L-shaped building, with an all-glass house in

its angle. The main hall extends east and west, and it is 60 feet long

by 50 feet wide. This great room contains the foreign song-birds, many

tropical doves and pigeons, and such tropical varieties and oddities as

the great crowned pigeons, tinamous, toucans, giant king-fishers and

hornbills. In the great central flying cage there is perhaps the most

remarkable _omnium-gatherum_ of small tropical birds—swimmers, waders,

upland game birds and perchers—ever brought together in one cage. The

bottom of the L is the Parrots’ Hall, 65×30 feet. It contains the

parrots, macaws, cockatoos, and a few other species.

 

[Illustration: SERIEMA.]

 

[Illustration: SECRETARY BIRD.]

 

In the angle of the main building stands a structure almost wholly

composed of metal and glass, which is known as the Glass Court. It was

designed especially for North American song-birds. The visitor should

not overlook the fact that there are cages filled with birds all along

both the eastern and western sides of the Large Bird House.

 

Nearly all the cages of both the exterior and interior of the Main and

Parrots’ Halls, are accessible from the back by passage-ways; a

convenience that greatly facilitates the work of the keepers in caring

for their various charges.

 

The capacity of this installation as a whole may be judged from the

following memorandum of cages:

 

APPROXIMATE SIZES OF CAGES OF THE LARGE BIRD-HOUSE

_INDOORS._

 

Main Hall Central Flying Cage 15×36×20 feet high 1

Side Cages 5×5×9 35

End Cages 5×12×9 2

Parrot Hall Side Cages 6×8×9 21

Glass Court West Cages 8×9×9 6

East & North Cages 5×6×8 16

 

_OUTDOORS._

 

Northeast Cages 7×12×10 2

East Cages 6×8×10 10

Southeast Circular Flight Cage 20×20×2 1

South Cages 6×8×10 3

Large Western Cages 15×15×15 3

Smaller Western Cages 6×9×10 14

Total number of cages 114

 

Regarding the state of health and spirits of the birds in this building,

the visitor must be left to judge for himself. It is only fair to state,

however, that the death rate here and indeed amongst the birds of the

Park generally, is _very low_.

 

In view of the great number of avian species inhabiting the Large

Bird-House, it is a practical impossibility to give more than a general

outline of the groups and leading features of the collection.

 

As the visitor enters at the south door, nearest the Lion House, he is

greeted by a discordant chorus of ear-piercing shrieks and squawks,

joyous but very raucous, and at times too persistent. Loudest are the

voices of the gorgeously-plumaged Blue-and-Yellow Macaw, (_Ara

ararauna_); the Red-and-Blue Macaw, (_Ara macao_), and the Great Green

Macaw. Around their cages there is no such thing as stagnation or

somnolence. The soft-hued Rosella Parakeets, the flock of mostly-green

Cuban Parrots, the Leadbeater Cockatoos and the White Cockatoos all join

in their voices, to the limit of their respective abilities, but against

macaws which can be heard a mile, their best efforts seem tame. The

members of the Order _Psittaciformes_ (as above) have been beautifully

colored by Nature, and their harsh voices seem strangely out of harmony

with their plumage.

 

The indoor cages along the western side of the Large Bird-House (both

halls included), contain an extensive series of tropical Pigeons and

Doves, which are well worth some attention.

 

The most startling exhibit in this group is the Bleeding Heart Pigeon

(_Phlogoenas luzonica_), from the Philippines, whose creamy-white breast

seems to have been recently stabbed with a stiletto. It is no wonder

that now and then a sympathetic visitor seeks the curator, or a keeper,

and reports that a bird has been injured, and is bleeding from a wound

in its breast.

 

[Illustration: GREAT CROWNED PIGEON.]

 

The Flying Cage in the center of the Main Hall contains a pool of

running water, some small trees, an imitation rock, and the floor is

covered with a comfortable layer of sand. Hopping or flying about, and

perching on the trees, is a really remarkable medley of birds. There are

the Wood Duck and Mandarin Duck, Black Skimmers, Common and Sooty Terns,

several species of Teal, Curlews, Gallinules, Coots, Lapwings, Snipe,

Ruffs, Quail, Francolins, Senegal, Turtle, Wonga-wonga and other Pigeons

and Doves, Skylarks, Robins, Orioles, Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Java, Fox,

Tree, and other Sparrows and Weavers.

 

The south side of the Main Hall is devoted to miscellaneous rare birds

from the tropics, regardless of the Orders to which they belong. The

largest are the Great Crowned Pigeons,—Victoria and Common,—the oddest

are the Concave-Casqued Hornbills and the Toucans (eight species). The

Rufous Tinamou, of South America, is a species which, through lack of

use for its wings, is rapidly losing the power of flight. The Giant

Kingfisher is the “Laughing Jackass” of Australia, and its cry is

strangely like the mirthless horse-laugh of a man who has few smiles and

seldom uses one. The Himalayan Jay-Thrush is so confirmed a murderer of

birds smaller than himself, it is necessary to quarter that species with

other birds abundantly able to defend themselves against its attacks.

 

[Illustration: SULPHUR CRESTED COCKATOO.]

 

[Illustration: TOCO TOUCAN.]

 

On the northern side of the Main Hall there will be found a very

interesting group of Cuban birds, another of birds of the Bahamas, a

fair-sized collection of Finches, Weavers, Canaries, Trogons, and other

small species of foreign lands. Here also is the rare and

beautifully-plumed Greater Bird of Paradise, (_Paradisea apoda_).

 

The visitor is reminded that for all cages that contain more than one

species, the picture labels quickly furnish a key for identification of

each.

 

In the Glass Court and around it, the Curator of Birds, Mr. C. William

Beebe, has scored a gratifying success in the installation of the Order

_Passeres_. The birds are arranged by Families, and _all of the

twenty-one families of eastern North American perching birds are

represented_. These Families are as follows: Flycatchers, Swallows,

Wrens, Mockingbirds and Catbirds, Thrushes, Kinglets, Vireos, Waxwings,

Shrikes, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Brown Creepers, Warblers, Pipits,

Horned Larks, Sparrows, Honey Creepers, Tanagers, Blackbirds and

Orioles, English Starling, Crows and Jays. It is only those who have

attempted to form and install such a collection who can appreciate the

effort which that collection has cost, or the difficulties involved in

the maintenance of so large a number of insect-eating birds. The birds

in this section of the Bird-House are especially interesting to the

teachers of pupils of the public schools of this city.

 

The large circular flying cage, at the outer corner of the Glass Court,

is filled with Robins, Bluebirds, Thrushes and Woodpeckers which winter

there very comfortably, because they are fed and watered, and sheltered

from the worst storms.

 

Along the western wall of the Large Bird-House, outside, fourteen large

cages are filled with members of the Crow and Blackbird Families

(_Corvidae_ and _Icteridae_), such as the Ravens, Crows, Jays, Magpies,

Blackbirds, Meadowlarks, Cowbirds and Grackles, beside which appear our

old friends the Yellow-Shafted Flicker and Red-Headed Woodpecker.

 

The following is a systematic enumeration of the Orders of birds

represented in the Zoological Park on April 1, 1913:

 

LIST OF BIRDS, APRIL 1, 1913.

ORDERS. Species. Specimens.

 

Rheiformes Rheas 2 2

Struthioniformes Ostriches 2 2

Casuariiformes Emeus and Cassowaries 2 3

Tinamiformes Tinamou 5 5

Galliformes Quail and Pheasants 88 204

Turniciformes Hemipodes 1 2

Ptericlidiformes Sand Grouse 1 1

Columbiformes Pigeons and Doves 57 183

Ralliformes Coots and Gallinules 15 35

Lariformes Gulls and Terns 17 54

Charadriiformes Plovers and Sandpipers 18 48

Gruiformes Cranes, Seriema 13 30

Ardeiformes Ibises, Storks and Herons 35 85

Palamedeiformes Screamers 3 4

Phoenicopteriformes Flamingoes 2 5

Anseriformes Swans, Geese and Ducks 72 712

Pelecaniformes New World Vultures 9 30

Cathartidiformes Cormorants and Pelicans 8 27

Serpentariiformes Secretary Birds 1 2

Accipitriformes Hawks and Eagles; Old World 28 48

Vultures

Strigiformes Owls 20 47

Psittaciformes Parrots, Macaws and Cockatoos 86 194

Coraciiformes Kingfishers and Hornbills 12 15

Trogoniformes Trogons 1 1

Cuculiformes Touracos and Cuckoos 10 18

Scansoriforme Toucans and Barbets 8 13

Piciformes Woodpecker 9 26

Passeriformes Thrushes, Sparrows and all 378 1242

perching birds

Totals 903 3038