The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-09
QUEER THINGS IN FLORIDA.
Land of Flowers Habitat of Curious
Animal Forms


Curator James M Southwick, of the
Natural History museum in Roger Will
ljams' park, Providence, r. l., has re-
Gently returned from a trip to Florida,
where he spent several weeks for the
benefit of his health and also in the in
tereSts Of science says the Providence
journal. He has come back with few
hundred interesting specimens that ought
to have cabinets provided for them, for
as yet there is no room for them among
the other inmates of the institution.
The curator went to Oak Lodge, Grant,
Fla. There Mrs. Henry F. Latham, who
city, keeps lodge where naturalists
from different parts Of America come to
stay while they get better acquainted
with the animals, insects and fish in the
neighborhood.
The boys" as Mr. Southwick speaks
OF his brother scientists, cali their hos
tess Mother Latham" she takes such
deep interest in them and their work.
And she is herself naturalist of sonfe
note, made one by her associations and
surroundings, and she has contributed
specimens to nearly every large mu-
scum IN the country. She is regarded
by the scientists more kindly than even
the strange little animals hat make their
nome near her, and that seems more
imam anyone but naturalist will I'm
derStand.
Mrs. Latham takes orders from the diff
ferent ZOOS and museums in the country
and supplies them with all the rare
Things they ask for that he can secure.
he sent a large shipment of birds last
year TO the Bronx park zoo, New York,
and While Mr.. Southwick was in Florida
lately Mr.. Latham sent four offers also
to the metropolis
Oak L1Ige is on a remarkable piece
of land, at least from the naturalist s
size OF the geography. 1t is a narrow
strip running between the Indian river
and the ocean, near Sebastian bay, and
1t is in just that subtropicaI situation
that makes 1t attractive for certain pc
culiar types Of small mammals. These
interesting forms of diminutive life have
IN N turn Drawn the biologists who come
here in the winter season from the
American museum New York; the Unit
ed States National museum, Washing
ton; the Carnegie museum, Pittsburg,
and other large institutions Mr. New
here.
NATURALISTS' WINTER COLONY.
This winter colony of naturaIists spend
some delightful days in this r on, which
is so absorbingly full of an interest com
mon to them all. Many of them bring
their wives and families and as eysrv-
body is collecting the net result Is a
museum Of specimens as we'll as an
abundance of pleasure. Another thing
winch makes it pleasant for them ana
which even scientists and their families
DO not oVeTlook-Mrs Latham gives
them all good Rhode Island cooking Al
most every hunter, fisherman and natur-
aIlst who goes to Florida complains Of
the native cooking; everything, they saw
is swimming in grease. But, With the
privilege of eating New England food,
ADDED to the chance of catching rare
mice, beetles, birds, butterflies and
snakes, the naturalist finds N Oak Lodge
as much of a paradise as he hopes ever
10 see set down on a map.
Inc native youngsters are always bring
ing IN valuable things that crawl an /
SWIM and squ1rm and fly; traps are ale
ways going off on some living thing or
otner, and the zoologist- seldom leaves his
PED PED or the table without TAXI g up a but
lerlly net, mouse trap, or maybe a
gun. once In while a natural st does do
MS own shooting down the e, but. as
a rule, he hires it done for him. TIE
trap that they use to catch the strange
Kind of mice in that reg on has a share
little steel band which is sprung fierceiY
! down edgeWise upon the little creature.
breaking its back by the force of the
| blow.
Chapman's mouse less formally intro
duced as the beach or pink mouse is one
| OF the several kinds of mice that Curator
SouthWlck brought back with him. Mr.
Cnapmans mouse would make a pretty
little pet; its ears and nose and tail are
| SO thln-skinned that the blood shows
Inr9ugh In shade of pink that would
! lead one to think the little fellow had
oeen playing in a dish of strawberry
cream. This mouse makes his home in
a strip of land bordering on the ocean.
aLi ia from two to three hundred yards
|
oats which grow up wiry beside the salt
water san
Larger animals have an excellent opin-
| lon OF the mouse traps. They go around
from one to the other and eat up the
! mice that have been detained there and
the disappointed biologists find the traps
and the fragments of the mice off some
where in the woods.
LIZARDS ARE INQUIsITIVE.
The red-throated lizard is another of
the arrivals from Florida He is now
trying to preserve his body by the severe
method of swimming in alcohol Many
of these little mammals do not hold anv.
thing like their original color after they
are killed and kept in museums, so a
portrait is made of them before all their
natural beauty is gone, holding with
paint their real colors In the same way
birds with beautiful plumage fade out
soon after they have been appropriated
by science, and the colors they wear be-
hind the glass aren't their own They
are painted.
The red-throated lizard-to get away
from an indicate subject and back tc
zoology-is a good lizard, Industrious and
useful about the house. He may not be
quite as brave as Kipling's "Rikki-tikki.
tive" who killed the snakes and saved
the lives of the people he lived with but
he eats up most of the vermin and that
is enough for one little fellow in place
so infected as Florida He is of a So
cable nature, and he lives in bedrooms
One morning one of thew who occupied
Mr.. SouthWicks room with him, got ur
on the bureau to gaze over and see what
the curator of the Natural History mu-
! scum in Roger Williams park looked like
A male and female snake-bird were Sc
cured also. They swim along with only
! their long neck and head showing above