Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-08-29
TRADE IN ANIMALS.
Many Queer Species Listed a. Live
Material.
shipped Alive From All Parts Of the
.WOrld-Priees Paid for Bull
frogs, Turtles, makes
and Bugs,

kingdom, nor any orner Of the world,
that is not ransacked and explored
nowadays for the purpose Of collecting
natural history curiosities to supply
the commercial demand. Special expe-
ditions are sen to remote and almost
inaccessible regions to gather strange
and rare animals, for which the market
is as unfailing as for any staple product
of the soil or the factory. Firms deal
ing in such merchandise in a large way
are located in most big cities both in
this country and abroad, and, judging
from the comprehensiveness of their
catalogues, it would seem as if there
was nothing that flies or walks or
swims that they are not prepared to
furnish on short notice at list prices,
says Rene Bache, in the Philadelphia
Saturday Evening Post.
One OF these catalogues advertises a
large assortment of 'live material" as
it is termed. From this document
learns that he can obtain large bull
frogs at three dollars a dozen, alive and
kicking; mediumsized bulltrogs are
cheaper, costing only Sits for IL. Tur-
ties are two dollars a dozen for
adults" and small ones for aquaria
are offered at Is cents each. Pond
snails, lin assorted lots" are listed at
rs cents a dozen; crayfsh cost one dol
lar q dozen, and nevis are Is cents
each. In ordering ~craytish, it is request
ed that a few days notice be given in
which to secure them in case the stock
should be low. No such reservation,
however, is made in the case Of earth
worms, which come at 60 cents a dozen.
1t is safe to say that any small boy will
furnish ~earthworms under this rate.
1t will be understood that all the
above animals are shipped alive. The
catalogue quotes small alligators at 50
to rs cents apiece. Live rattlesnakes
come higher-especially the diamond
r~attlesnake, which costs from five to
twelve dollars. Economical persons
however, may prefer a ground rattle
snake at n dollar. The copperhead
is supposed to be about as deadly as the
rattlesnake, and may be obtained for
two dollars, while chicken snakes, king
snakes and garter snakes sell a low as
50 cents each.
Crabs are not offered alive. but in al
cohol, and in this shape one can buy
sand crabs, blue crabs. spider crabs,
fiddler crabs, mud crabs and hermit
crabs at prices running from ten to
seventyAve cents apiece, spider crabs
being the dearest. Insects, similarly
preserved, r so cheap as to tempt
purchase. Squash-bugs cost only so
cents a dozen, while giant water bugs
come at only half that price. Earwigs
are quoted at so cents a dozen, ant
lions at ten cents each, crickets at so
cents a dozen, 17-year locusts at ten
cents apiece and June bugs at so cents
a dozen. Horse11ies invite the buyer at
only ten cents the fly, "true wasps'
may be obtained for the same price,
and bumblebees foot the list at six
cents.
In London. which is the great bug
market Of the world, auctions of in
sects are held every year, and startling
prices are paid sometimes for rare
specimens. As much as $500 has been
brought by a single butterfly, while an
out-of-the-way beetle may be valued at
many times its weight in gold.
Hamburg is a great market for wild
animals, largely from Africa, that city
having an important trade with the
Dark Continent. To London ome
much material of the same sort from
Australia and New Zealand, and many
rare creatures are obtained from sail
ors who fetch them from various parts
of the world. An American dealer, not
very long ago, made a special trip to
White bay, New Zealand, for the pur-
pose of procuring a kind of lizard
called the "sphenodon," which is re-
garded by scientists as a wonderful
curiosity, inasmuch as it is the only
survivor of an entire order of reptiles,
all the other genera and species having
long since become extinct. This lizard,
which is known to the native Maoris
as the "tuatera," is about a foot and a
half long and, oddly enough, seems to
afflnities with the crocodile. OF
course, all the %kangaroos, wombats
and fightless birds come from Aus
tralia Or New Zealand. Awhile ago the
American dealer above referred to
made a special trip to South America
for the purpose Of obtaining guanaco
and steamer ducks. The
guanaco is chiefly interesting because,
like the llama, it is a representative of
the camel tribe on this continent. The
steamer duck is particularly odd, mas
much as it flies when it is young, but
cannot do so after it has matured. The
adult bird beats the water with its
wings a. it swims, and this suggested
the name given to the species at a
when all steamers were side
1t cannot rise in flight, for
the that, as it gets older, its
wings do not develop in proportion to |
its increase in weight.
i
Her Own Selection.