WELLINGTON ZOO

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2217, 1 August 1914, Page 7

WELLINGTON ZOO

GOLDEN PHEASANTS

-NEWS AND COMMENTS

(By John Crewes, President of the .Wellington Zoological Society.)

A year or two ago our stock of golden pheasants had dwindled.-. until/we had not a male in golden plumage in this ' Zoo. Tfow our aviaries arcr aglow with golden glories. Three young niales, procured by Mr. Castle for otir society, and presented, afo in splendid condition; and lately the Zoo has been enriched with more from somewhere else. .The arrival of these has caused considierable excitement and rivalry in the pheasantry.. What ought to be tho most showy bird in. the whole department is a- crossbred between, a Lady Amherst's pheasant and; a golden; but the gorgeous hybrid is; very shy, and is, not publicly, seen 'very: often. His , more-sensible- nia'te has taken' proper ciercise: but her. : retiring lord has kept; himseHkin his. mansiohi': where, hurriedly pacing His roonv he h'es proved nim?' self a vory''unsuitable partner■ s fqr a young lady fond of life and scenery. , But a few days ago ho go;t a strange His .wife, intimated that', if he would,make tfuch'a recluse of himself she would, when.; he .was nob looKing, flirt with the gay young golden in the adjoining WhenlLor'd Amherst 'looked out, and saw his- ladv walking up and down with their nexWoor neighbour, and whispering through fhe wiry fence between them,.-jealousy, was stir- ' red, and he was moved to array hifnBelf in hie very best; and. try with his jflost alluring wiles, -to win back the . attention that seemed likely to. be transferred to one. more deserving of it. Theft that male Amherst pheasant was seeinjg; ana as, swollen" • with pride and exhibiting the beauty of -his perfect orown" and collar, he , strutted in the 1 suashine, he'.called forth from my, frien,d pastle an exclamation, of astonished admiratiotf that •will not be soon forgotten. I heartily congratulate Mr. : Langtidge and his • staff oil the.', condition' that the pheas- ; ants are in. The .hybrids, the eilvers, the Mongolian,;the'Swirihoe's Kaleege, and the -goldea are a)l : . reaUy splendid at present. .-:■■■ ■ : ■; .■;•..-"'/ .

A Creat Plottire, ' My notes are Zoo notes; notes .'on nature, hot on aft. But one of. my duties is to encourage artists to utilise oilr Zoo'to popularise the: B.tiidy of zoology. r.therefoTel-'in my'reln-arks oh the great pioture of the descent, into Egyjit which Mr. Baillie bason eihibitioii in. his collection of.British pictures, on one of. the .Wellington wharves, just now, will refer to the zoological side of the picture. In'passing, however, I may say tnat. I"-wonder that preachers of the Gospel,'bf Jesus have not in Welliiigtoh made greater U6e" of the picture than they;have,, sermons. pioture; is really a , wonderful wbrk o? genius. Thonjbeihgthatj it is composed of ".-parts r". perfectly prop6rtionate/ coh- . siatent, scie'ritiflc, and niatuf'al.' To Bee this one must ktioW yrka&'e; dbntey is. Only a comparatively few persons know what a donkey is... In most English, communities it has been, so .carelessly bred, so heavily overburdened, so rbligh]y fed, so mercileasiy belaboured, and bo cruelly treated, .generally, that the much-abused animal Ms-not been able to develop its true natture. 'The young donkey- in the Wellington Zoo evinces the fact that-the donkey is,-pbr'haps, except" the monkeys, the most lively; humorous, frolicsome,'affectionate, and do.cilo animal there.- The artist has de-! picted-a donkey that is ; true to' nature, and yet is such nnanimdl , as might be kept by a in'an' fit -to. be a Ruardiaic of the; Supreme' Son of "Strong 'Soriof God immortal love." The donkey y depicted is evidently well bred, well fed, wcll_ groomed. It is full,of life and spirit. .But the perfect restfulness' of the : . Itifaiit, the iiiiponcern of Mary, and 1 the mutual cbnfidencb between Joseph' and .the donkey, all indicate that ■kindness had cast out fear jiiid; that in the ' view of the artist a sprightly animal might be burdened and in bondage and yet be perfectly loyal in its service and . comparatively happy in the".■enjbymejit" . of human kindness. The unity of the picture in its proportion, quiet strengthi perfect har- N Jnohy, natural suggestiveness, and satisfaotory reverence.. The Child has in Him great potentialities,' and yet-r- is beautifully guileless and trustful: tho mother looks a lobk' that is. ineffably tender but is wistful, it is a, look at the Child, however; Joseph seems anxious, but he looks ahead;'the donkey is alert and his_ step is elastio. Each member of the little party evidently has implicit confidence in all the others. _. In'every feature and in every line' of the.picture, the truth that love casts out fear is naturally expressed. To produce .such an effect without any 'hint at fton.str6sit.vor appearance of incongruity, in a picture uniting the Lord of the Universe, in the form of a baby, with two wondering human beings.and" a docile, trustful donkey wa-s a magnificent idea,that the.slightest incongruity would havo reduced to ridicule or irreverence; but translated as Goodall lias translated it in Mr. 'Baillie's wonderful picture, it represents a maeiiificent conception'of a great genius.-faith-o fully 'tr.-mslatcVl into i> reverent picturo ' that is one of the very few very great pictures of jSacred. subjects: that have been painted" in o\ir time'.' Every person should see the picture, and every reader of my. notes should notice that the painter's knowledge of- aiiimnls" lias enabled hini to paint'a marvellously harmonious picturo that might have been rendered disproportionate and ifrev'Afent by a. misropresentation of the donkey.. A Pair of Whfte Ibises. V ; The ancient- Egyptians , worshipped ibises. That, say some of riiy friends, proves that the anfcieut Egyptians were umvise. _ Modern Auetralians have de- .. stroyed ibises. .That, I say, .proves that modern Australian? are unwiser. But be that as it may, this fact remaiiis that the latest addition to the Wellington Zoo is a _pair of wliito ibises, "practically identical witli i the , , sacred ibis of Egypt."- ■ Two gentlemen camo upon a flock of.ibises breeding. It ivas estimated that the, flock contained 240,000- birds. Tlib shot some ibises, and found, that each bird that they opened contained oh tho average 2000 young grasshoppers. If ■n flock of birds killed 480,000,000 grasshoppers Mn a day, it is very certain that therd were four hundred and eighty million grasshoppers .there.; In countries like' Egypt, and Australia, it is madness to kill ibises.' On. giinday nf- • ternoon visitors to tho Zoo will see such birds aa the. ancient Egyptians worshipped, and hear what has never yet been heard, a hand .playing within the present precincts of the : Wellington Zoo. : ' ■■-■-..■•

' > • A Flying Opossunv ■ A flying opossum has recently been received by my society from Miss 0. Tennent, of Martinbormigh, and placed, in the Zoo. The flying opossum Is. a » very interesting little animal; but in our Zoo tho little pair of flying mafsupials that we now have there, hide themselves in .full of straw during -most of tho daytimo, and thus 6k- ■ ■' cite more curiosity than admiration^ 7 A Young camel. i There ds a , male camel in-tlio Zoo. A young female has btien offered at i price. The price of camels is not extremely high at present. Some pubiicgpirii'cd citizen, that has a smail amount of spare .iash to. feive, fiholild ask .Mr: Castle, oheinisfc. TUddiiEdrd Strtefc; Naw-

town, the treasurer of my society, who would supply particulars to get and give theni. .-...-

High Jinks and Other Jinks.

Wellington City held a Carnival, and netted a considerable.sum of money.. My society asked that'a portion of the profit should bo spent to terrace a magnificent mound m olir Zoo grounds, crown it with a rustic rock-work tower and spire, and make of it a fine exhibition place for bears, goats, otc. ; and a worthy commemoration qf Wellington s first annual Carnival. IJut tho CaTnwal Committee turned down" our J-usi then, or perhaps bef pre- i did not claim novelty tor my society's proposal— a gentleman in iLohdon desired to see, 'terraces in the; London. Zoo grounds. He not only desired to seo them; he offered to pay for them. His offer was accepted; A few weeks ago the Jlappm Terraces were completed, although Mr. Mappin died bef ore they could bo open,ed. A few days ago a kind friend sent me a' copy of a welUEustrated London and Manchester half-penny paper, the, "Daily News and Leader," for Tuesday, June 2, in which, is a Jiyely report of Wiit Monday's attendance at the London Zoo, fi-om -which I quote a few extracts.:^'How much of yesterday's remarkable crowd at, the Zoo was brought fby the fine weather aiid npy much by tne hew terraces it Was i_ot the work of'the turnstiles to make but;, but the Gardens on Whit Monday had a record attendance'.' .At times. ther.j was a real ofu6h in some of ih'e -more; houses. It y/as possjble "to i. vie*;: tho' _ terraces only at.-a slow pace> and when Sam stood tip-end- on >. rdckj -12fti 3in. dn • his polar ■ eocfe) in an effort to see whether, the meat was coming (it was nearly inid-day), the crowd Behind, realising ithe excitement in, front, .didn't quite know whether, to satisfy its curiosity by pressing forward or to turii and flee. These beaVs now have a,deep, pond .in- their den; was- filled yesterday, Bij that visitors -were, given, a fine display of diving aid swimming. , "The, peaks, of- the terraces are. now occupied by ibex and, Barbary . shefip. The -casual' manner: in which thSse creatures spared" up what looked like vertical .heights.' : and- then stood sta-tues-q-iie against th 6. sky caused. as many startled the awM beak of tie boatbiil, that 'bird which the ■ uejial visitor refuses to believe' is 1 iiot a fake.' One of' the kids of the Barbary «heepi 'oti i the first day, squeezed through an ohitriictioii into a |R aca where it had no busiriess, skipped along a prefcipice; ivnd'thori kaped about Iβ: fbet to the grbunil. It Was -uhhtirt."