Scientific Serials
1873; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 8; Issue: 199 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1038/008335a0
ISSN1476-4687
Tópico(s)Botany, Ecology, and Taxonomy Studies
ResumoTHE Zoologist for this month commences with an interesting paper by Mr. T. H. Potts, who is paying so much attention to the birds of New Zealand, on the habits of the Night Parrot of that country (Stringops habroplilus). One of its favourite foods is the younger part of the fern Asplenium bulbiferum, called Pikipiki, which, being only partly digesible, forms large pellets of excreta on the floor of their tunnel homes. All those who have kept a bird of this species as a pet, agree in testifying to its intelligence and companionableness.—Mr. Cecil Smith, among his ornitheogical notes from Somersetshire, records experiments, suggested by Prof. Newton, with a view of ascertaining how far birds in general, and especially some of the foster-parents of the cuckoo, have any objection to eggs of a different colour being placed in their nest. In nearly every case the exchange was perfectly successful.—Mr. Gatcombe bad an opportunity of examining a Night Heron obtained near Ivybridge, in Devon; he also records other ornithological notes.—A specimen of Scyllarus arctus is mentioned by Mr. J. S. Bowerbank, as having been obtained by him at St. Leonard's (it was five inches long), as well as an Angel Fish.—A. G. Butler finds, as one of the effects of the Wild Birds Protection Act, that farmers employ boys to collect and break up all the eggs on their grounds, as they are deprived of the satisfaction of destroying the birds.
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