ADDITIONS TO THE ZOO.
It rarely happens that a shipmaster displays such a devoted love for nature study as Captain Colin McDonald, of the Currie liner Janus, now lying alongside McLaren Wharf, Port Adelaide. His vessel trades regularly between India and Australia, and every trip sees him with a collection of Indian birds and animals. Captain McDonald, who takes a pride in the study of such, is well known to the zoologists of Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, for they always look forward to something new from him, and they usually get it. On the present voyage, the mariner's collection is small compared with that which he usually brings to these shores. On the sides of the Janus' fore deck were a number of stalls and huge cages in which were cooped animals and birds rarely seen in these parts. Among them were two pairs of spotted deer, three hog deer, a basking deer, a pair of young four-horned antelopes, a hyena, a pair of young Himalayan brown bears—which are very rare—three fat tailed sheep, one of which has the largest tail that Captain McDonald has ever seen, a "Mooltan' bull, and a young sloth bear, which has a cry like a baby. Of the birds partridges and pheasants comprise the biggest collections. There are a few cranes, a flamingoe, a number of jabaroos, which are striking resemblances of the stork. Mr. Minchin, of the Adelaide Zoological Gardens, made a few purchases, among which were three tragopans, fabulous Ethiopian birds, and one of the several species of the Asiatic pheasants of the genus ceriornis. They are brilliantly colored with a variety of tints. He also obtained a cage full of small finches, four college pheasants, and about a dozen partridges. The bulk of the birds and animals on the Janus are for the Melbourne and Sydney Zoos. |
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