Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-08-29

D., THURSDAY,
as boot" or make weight in some agreement
for other and more costly animals.
osTRICHEs.
Ostriches are considered worth $500 to $500
a pair. These are usually Matched from the
eggs under the domestic goose, or other tame
bird, and then reared with the greatest care
to maturity. 1t is almost impossible to cap
ture full. grown ostrich without inAicting in
iuries so severe that it soon dies. These huge
birds do not bear with hardihood our climate
and the necessary confinement of exhibition,
but in few months, or years at most, pine,
grow emaciated, and die. In travelling, they
have to be watched continually, with the most
unremittng care, to see that the inquiring
country boy in his thirst for knowledge does
not feed the bird with nice little lunches of
railroad spikes or dainty repasts of old horse
shoes and tenpenny nails. The eager bump
kin dispenses to the ostrich these dainties with
liberal hand in accordance with certain
travellers stories he has read, which inform
him that delicacies Of the metallic sort are his
favorite food. The truth is that the ostrich
is a very foolish, as we'll as an exceedingly
greedy bird, ard really will snap up and swal,
low down stones, bits of iron, or almost any.
thing else that is given it, but it can no more
digest such things than human stomach can
digest blacksmith's anvil or 20 inch can
non. So, if the stupid bird is not carefully
LII orl ,oroJ &ho 1ipIpoco of hio
MISUNDERSTANDING friends, he will speedily
die of surfeit of old iron, india.rubber shoes,
wornout hoopskirts, rusty telegraph wire, and
such similar sweet morsels, as suggest them
selves to the liberal rustic mind as being ap-
propriate gastronomic gifts. Their proper
food is meat.
HUNGRY GORILLA.
This difficulty of procuring proper food in
the great quantity called for by the inordinate
appetite Of the gorilla has, it seems, been the
great obstacle to the transportation of that
estimable simian safely from Africa to Eu-
rope. Du Chaillu, or one of his agents, hav-
ing secured an unusually amiable specimen,
whose alimentiveness was so much more fully
developed than his combativeness that he
thought more Of eating than of fighting other
people or pounding himself to death, he was
put on shipboard with what was considered a
proper supply of sugar-cane, tender branches
of various succulent plants, certain roots and
fruits suited to his most fastidious taste, and
was started for Liverpool. Being deprived Of
congenial society, however, and having moth
ing to do other than to attend to his CASTRO
nomic desires, Mr.. Gorilla soon commenced
such tremendous onslaught on the food pro-
vided for him that ere he was literally "half
seas over" his entire stock of provisions was
consumed. Beans potatoes, hard-tack and
salt-horse were tried by the sailors, while the
entire cabin commissariat was ransacked for
acceptable grub. Even plum duff failed to
please his dainty stomach, and he soon sue
cumbed, and died nineteen days out Of port.
No such promising specimen has since been
captured, and living gorilla is a gentleman
as yet uninterviewed by any white men save
Du Chaillu, Gordon Cumming, and other
mighty hunters of similar African aspirations
and experiences.
HOW THEY EAT.
Ofcourse the lions, tigers, leopards, and all
that are known as the "cat animals" must be
fed with raw meat. A frst-class menagerie
will consume from 300 to 500 pounds Of beef
per day for this class of animals
Elephants eat from 500 to 700 pounds of
hay each, per day. Itbeing universal past
time with sightseeing people, to feed the ele-
plants, they are generally kept busy during
exhibition hours munching apples, ginger
bread, and other free gifts Of the many headed
people.
Camels are fed on hay, oats and corn, Of
which the allowance for one camel is about
as much grain as for horse.
Giraffes receive hay, oats and corn, and also
are allowed, when feasible, to help themselves
to the tender twigs Of certain trees.
Bears are given bread and vegetables, very
seldom or never receiving meat.
The sea lions will each devour one hundred
pounds Of fish per day. The seal and otters
are also fed with fish, which should be from
the salt sea, inasmuch as even few days diet
on fresh-water fish will cause these dainty ami
mails to grow thin and pine away.
In the winter the entire menagerie is always
housed in convenient and comfortable quar-
ters, generally near some city where the at
tendants can procure proper food, and in eve
ry other way look after the health and COM
fort of their valuable charges.
The entire amount of capital invested in
menagerie property in the United States, in
cluding not only the animals, but all the ap-
paratus and material requisite for their trans
portation and exhibition, may be fairly esti-
mated at over $2,000,000.
->~>
LEARN A TRADE.