National Republican., 1883-07-18
BEASTS AND BIRDS.
Uhe ouriosities OF nIenSgorie and n
Brave GuII, Professors Mistake,
Badgers Skin, and Dictetic Secret.

The speaker was ragged urohin of about
~, and he held in his grimy hands a wrig-
Cling specimen of the pond nightingale, the
buIgy eyes staring at Col. Marshall, manager
of Woodwards Gardens, with almost as much
expectant interest as those Of his captor. Well
might poor froggy hang upon the answer, for
a purchase meant that he would have a cool
corner in rockery, grubs to his belly's de-
sire, and the companionship of the choicest
scions Of the genus Rama A refusal meant
a long stick, short shrift, a high parabola,
and fatal dull thud."
mo, we don't want It," said Marshall,
we've got more frogs now than we know
what to do with"
"Well, you can take this one any Way"
said the boy, and with jerk the frog was
sent whizzing through the air like Cath
crime wheel and fell somewhere near the sea
lions pond.
You'd be surprised" said Colonel Mar
shall, when he had returned from short
chase of the reckless contributor, you'd be
surprised at the amount of truck we get
offered us every day. Frogs, horned toads,
tarantulas enough to stock San Diego county,
calves with no legs and calves with any
number of heads, lizards, two-bodied dogs,
snakes by the basketful-every sort of thing
that's curious or rare, from a dwarfed tree to
a fat baby. Here's Capthin Eastman just
come in the office to sell us couple of 600
pound sea lions. Come in and see him.
Capt Eastman was found to be q gigantic
man, with a sun-peeled nose and beard ike
the Ancient Mariners.
"Where were your sea lions caught" asked
Marshall.
"On the Farallones," replied the captain.
ave caught four; two of them I've sent on
to Baltimore and the other two ale now at
the bulkhead."
III Il t,I,
1--WE lasso them below the fippers as they
lie on the rocks and then put them in strait
jacket, and there's some fun doing that kin
assure you now."
"Wo are not doing much in sea lions,
now" said Marshall; "its losing game,
and here's Mr.. Roop, our animal man. who
can tell you why"
As Benjamin Roop, the keeper of the Wood
wards Gardens menagerie, has been in the
business for twenty-seven years, it was ina
gined that he would be able to furnish some
other information than that on sea lions. The
idea was mooted, and he said he thought so.
You see,' he continued, leaning over the
railing of the duck pond, some years ago Mr..
Woodward was taken with the fever for rails
ing sea lions, thinking there was fortune in
it. There was no money in it by buying and
selling them, SO we tried rearing; but twas
no good, and Pm ready to-day to pay any one
$3.50 who will teach me how to rear u sea lion
about two years old, and with good deal of
care managed to keep one hardy old chap six
years and five months. The young ones want
something from the sea that we can't furnish.
] used to think they died because they were in
fresh water, but l saw the expert
land, Greg, and they died just the
same You'd be astonished, in fact, to find
how tender all of this tribe get when they
lose their freedom. See that seal there, for
instance. That's the seal of commerce, and
the only one we've managed to keep out of l
don't know how many. The burned boys are
always throwing gravel at him, If he's on
the shore they chuck stones at him to make
him swim, and if he's swimming they worry
him until he hops up on shore. The other
day some little wretch blinded his left eye
with gravel, and since then he's been getting
thinner and thinner. spose he'll die. The
most troublesome thing of all to keep, how
ever, is coot. That's coot; that spotted
bird setting down there. We can keep coot
just as long as he's got fat enough of his own
to live upon. The critters won't feed, and
when their own reservoir of fat is gone they
just dies"
Don't you ever try to pair and rear
them? ?"
81 have tried over and over again, but it's
no use. Most of the pesky things won't even
lay. We've had emus Off and on for sixteen
years, and during that time L never saw an
egg. I've known parrots for twenty-five
years, and have only seen three eggs in that
quarter ofa century. The other day one of
our gulls laid an egg. Marshall put it in the
incubator Then the gull lays another and
Marshall takes the egg out of the incubator
and puts 'em both under the bird. There
she sets and there she may set till doomsday,
for I'll bet my hat that the eggs are no more
impregnated than a deal board. It's a
mighty curious thing about these birds-that
they will not cohabit when kept in this way.
There's another kinder Gu ious thing you
may notice here. The gull is generally
looked upon as foolish, cowardly kind of
bird, but you watch that setting female q
minnit and you may p'rhaps alter that opin-
ion."
With that Mr.. Roop drove a couple of
cassowaries down by the nest The gull in
stantly hoped out and uttered a peculiar
cry, at the sound Of which two male birds,
who were feeding in the distance. came
trotting to the relief, and nothing daunted
by the size of the huge birds, flew at their
great legs, jumped up their tail feathers and
sent the New Holland giants straddling to
the rightabout.
"There's lots of things about Gagged ami
mails" said Mr. Roop, leading the way to the
menagerie, that the ordinary visitor don't
take notice of. For instance, there's the
feeding. Now, most people imagine that in
feeding your beasts all you have to do is to
throw 'em meat and that ends it. Nothing
of the sort. The great trouble with the
health of animals is their liability to consti-
patton, which brings on cage fever. 1t cost
me $500 to learn the secret of feeding from an
English menagerie man, and when | learned
it twas so simple / was liked to have kicked
myself for not having tumbled to it, I'll
tell you, so in case you ever start a menagere
it mayn't cost you what it did me, but you
mustn't publish it,"
The secret was then confded, but in such
trip hot hn nat ha
specred.
"Do you see anything remarkable about
that leopard?" asked Mr.. Roop, halting in
front of great spotted African cat
81 see sleek looking beast" it was haz-
arded.
ITS all that" replied Mr.. Roop, "but it's
more. It's about the only long tailed leopard
in the United States. You see these beasts
are subject to fits, and whenever that comes
on the only relief is to cut off joint of his
tail and let little blood. It's the same with
cats and dogs. Whenever they get fits, Just
take big pair of shears and nip joint, let
out little of the bad blood aud the fit is
cured. I've known pig rear round sty
like wild thing, and as soon as he's had his
tail shortened he'll just be as quiet as a lamb
Leopards are peculiarly subject to fits, but
this leopard has had no fits and consequently
he's got all Of his .ail. Nearly all the Other
beasts have been docked, and in some menage
res you may notice that most of the animals
yra etu,,, toilad rhayjxya haan dn,l-a1 %,