Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1911-02-10
Rare Specimens on Way to Ex-
perimentaI Career in Chicago.
Animal Keeper of Lincoln Park Zoo
Will Try to Duplicate Natural Diet
of His Gorgeous Guests
From New Guinea.

Chicago.-The birdhouse at Lincoln
! park is all a futter over the expected
arrival of two birds of paradise. For
/ the first time in the history of Zoologi-
cal gardens in the United States Cy
de Vry will attempt to keep the large
emerald bird in temperate climate.
| The new acquisitions were pur-
chased in London from a dealer who
had obtained them in New Guinea.
Both are males, as they only possess
the brilliant colOrs and long aigrette
| feathers.
The birds are an experiment with
u.s." said Mr.. de Vry, seated in his Of
fice, surrounded by group OF pet
, monkeys, a porcupine, a Persian cat
and a few other geological sundries,
which help him to think quietly.
Take the question of feeding. These
birds hail from New Guinea, where
the books 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 few grasshOppers, with an Occa-
sional worm, to their epicurean tastes.
What can I do in frozen country?
Not very much, but in way a woman
down in Mount Hope, Pa, has come to
my rescue. She has started a business
of raising mealworms for birds. | or
der 10000 at a time. With them and
some rice and other small grain hope
to keep the emerald birds of paradise
alive"
According to the stories told by Mr..
de Vry 20 bird in the world is quite as
interesting as this emerald specimen.
All 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 spe-
cimen 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 ac-
custOmed to float around in space
above some East Indian Olympus
whence come it's godlike name. The
narrative continued that the female
bird made her nest in the splendid
plumage of the male and there Matched
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 thick
est parts of the jungles of East India,
kept alive the stories.
The actual behavior of the bird of
paradise is stated now, according to
old legends When the visitor ap-
proaches bird of paradise, if the bird
feels cheerful, the sounds "he, hi, no.
haw" are uttered as welcome. When
angry or gloomy, dismal "whock,
whock, whock' is all that is offered
the guest.
Mr.. and Mrs. Patty, the two Ameri-
can black bears. which have been
guests of the Lincoln park commits
sioners some twenty years, were visit
ed by two storks few nights ago.
The little black bears weighed scarce
ly a pound apiece. They are the first
to be born in Lincoln park, and among
the first to be born in captivity.
The parents are very large, as black
bears go, each weighing between 700
and 500 pounds. Their progeny, how
ever, 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