Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1911 — BIRDS OF PARADISE [ARTICLE]

BIRDS OF PARADISE

Rare Specimens on Way perimental Career in Chicago. Animal Keeper~dT~ttneeinlsartc~2« ; o : Will Try to Duplicate Natural Diet 5 of His Gorgeous Guests From New Guinea. Chicago.—The birdhouse at Lincoln park is all a flutter over the expectedtrrival of two birds of paradise. For the first time in the history of zoological gardens in the United States Cy ie Vry will attempt to keep the large emerald bird in a temperate climate. The new acquisitions were purchased in London from a dealer wßtr had obtained them in New Guinea. Both are males, as they onty possess colors and long aigrette feathers. ======?s ====s =^^ "The birds are an experiment with us,” said Mr. de Vry, seated in his office, surrounded by a group of pet monkeys, a porcupine, a Persian cat sundries, which help him tp think quietly. “Jake the question of feeding. These birds hail from New. Guinea, where the hooks say their menu include all sorts of insects, tropical worms and the grain and seeds which birds find in the jungle. If they arrived here in summer we might supply some flies and a few grasshoppers, with an occasional worm, to their epicurean tastes. ["What can I do in a frozen country? Not very much, but in a way a woman down in Mount Hope, Pa., has come to my rescue. She has started a business of raising mealworms for birds. I order 10,000 at a time. With them and some rice and ether small grain I hope to keep the emerald birds of paradise alive.” According to the stories told by Mr. de Vry no bird in the world is quite as interesting as this emerald~lpictnrenrAll through the middle ages the bird was the subject*of many fables and legends. Occasionally some sailor in The~East Indian seas would bring back the skin and feathers of one. The specimen would always lack legs. This gave rise to the fable that the bird was legless. The legend explained that the bird of paradise never alighted, but was accustomed to float around in space above some East Indian Olympus whence come its godlike name. The narrative continued that the female bird made her nest in the splendid plumage of the male and there hatched her eggs. The difficulty of catching The birds, and even of seeing them, hidden as they usually are in the dense foliage of the teak trees in the thickest parts of the jungles of East India,

kept alive the stories. The actual behavioroT~ttoe~bird-ofL paradise is stated now, according to Mr. de Vry, to be as Interesting as the old legends. When the visitor approaches a bird of paradise, If the bird feels cheerful, the sounds "herhir ho,haw" are uttered as a welcome. When angry or gloomy, a dismal “whock, whock, whock” is all that Is offered the guest. Mr. and Mrs. Patty, the two American black bears, which have been guests of the Lincoln park commissioners some twenty years, were visited by two storks a few nights ago. The little black bears weighed scarcely a pound apiece. They are the first to be born in Lincoln park, and among the first to be bom In capthrKy. ~ The parents are very large, as black bears go. each weighing between 700 and 800 pounds. Their progeny, bowever, were smaller than puppies. The bears are savage all out of proportion to the weight of their offspring, and when Charles Johnson, one of the

keepers, called at the Patty cave to pay his respects,—only unprecedented speed in leaving the couple saved his life.