When the Zoo was fortunate enough to obtain a pair of tawny frogmouths in Australia, through the efforts of Zoo friend Sir Edward Hallstrom, there were high hopes for breeding. For many long years, however, it was not to be. Then in 1968, keepers decided to try helping things along by providing a nesting basket lined with grass and leaves in one high corner of the aviary, since they had read that these birds build platform nests in tall trees in the wild. Apparently it met with the birds' approval, because two eggs were laid. But hopes were dashed when the eggs were found broken on the floor a little over two weeks later, and they proved to be infertile. Persistence is a San Diego Zoo keeper virtue, however, and the nesting material was replaced to try to stimulate a second breeding—and it worked. The second time was a charm, and the first tawny frogmouth chick in the Western Hemisphere hatched on May 3, 1968. It grew steadily as keeper Webster Tyrrell took detailed notes on its development, left the nest to perch with its parents (the wide-eyed fellow on the right in the photo), and successfully fledged.