The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-22
MOVING WILD BEASTS.
Shifting Boxes, Big Soap Nets and
 Lariats Used in the Work. New York Sun

Lariats Used in the Work.
 New York Sun.
 'In every menagerie." said an old show man. they use. in shifting animals about | what they call a shifting box. You can't very well walk to the cage of the royal Bengal tiger if you want to | shift him and take him by the scruff of l the neck. for he might not take 1t kindly: | and the gentlest animals might harm l themselves if you tried to handle them. So If you want to move an animal any, where you get shifting box. "A shifting box is practically d small cage, barred at one end, and having the middle section of bars joined top and l bottom to form gate, which can be slid I upward in grooves at the top. "The box is backed up to the door of I the big cage, which Is then opened. as is also the door of the shifting box, and then there is clear opening for the anil mai from one to the other. When you | have got the animal in the box a man ! standing on the top of it drops the door Of the box, and catches 1t at the top. Then you move the shifting box over 10 whatever other cage you are gotng to shift the animal to, and back the box up to that cage, and reverse the operation, getting the animal now out of the shift | ing box into the cage.
 0VA+VhHAtSS bL IS HAIQ WOfk shifting trnals. sometimes very easy. To get them into the box you may have to drive some, and for some you may have to wait a long time. A common method in shift. ing animals Is to skip the last feeding | time for the animal in it's regular cage and put the food for 1t in tho shifting box. The animal is hungry and goes for the food there.
 '"rhe shifting box is used sometimes fin ! a At tN0a "a other. or from a paddock to a cage In such cases the box is placed against q door or gate in one corner of a paddock, and then men carrying racks like shields in front of them go into the paddock and form q line across 1t, with the animal be- tween them and the corner. "As they advance into the angle of the paddock, and the distance from side to | side grows less, man after man of the line drops out, until finally one man, or two, have the animal cornefed and drive it Into the box.
 "But shifting box can't be used for ali animals; not for monkeys, for in- stance. If you want to shift them you have to catch them with an arrangement like big soap net.
 This net Is made with a hoop a foot or two in diameter with the net part made, not of netting, but of buriap: deep bur lap bag The man who is to shift nlon- keys wears. when he walks in among them, rubber coat, and a rubber can with haVeiock hood that covers his neck and all about his head but his face and he wears rubber gloves; all this pro lection, Of course so that the monkeys that might jump on him can't scratch or bite him.
 When the man has got a monkey where he can scoop him he brings the net or bag, down over him and then, with tha handle of the net, hc gives the bag two or three twisting turns. twisting 1t around near the hoop and over the monkey, so that the monkey can't get out, and can't scratch.
 Birds of smaller kinds. when they are to be shifted. are caught with a net: but In shifting big birds. like vultures, con- dors and eagles. they are caught wth a big net of burlap. something like that used for monkeys. so as to avoid injury from their peaks and talons.
 "A shifting box again, but of a differ. ent kind from those used in shimting ami mais, is sometimes used in shifting a!liRa- tors and crocodiles This box, of sunta bls size and shape. Is placed on its side in the pool, with the open side toward the alligator, and then men get behind it and shove 1t over toward him.
 Finally they get the alligathor over against the other side of the pool. where they can work him into the box. Then they right the box up and put glats across the top But the eommoner way. when they want to shift an alligator, is to rope 1t.
 "very probably there are some cow boys attached to the show. and if there are, they get them to lasso the alligator's head. so as to hold his jaws lightly to- gether, so that he can't bite. They are likely to get two lassos over hls head, one
 
 then as guy ropes to hold the creatures | head still, as well as to hold its jaws tightly cIosed-it could make a lot of | trouble swinging its head around, Azad | then, with the head and jaw SC. | cured. they go to roping him.
 While they are doing this they have l ona man. sometimes two men. hanging on | to the end of the alligators tail to keep ! him from swinging that around; big al- | ligator could easily break mans les | with 1t.
 .aThey get the rope around the alIiga- | tors body and legs until they come down | to his tail and then sometimes they take | s turn around the end of that and draw | tho tail around to the alAgators side and secure 1t there and so maKe II powerless' Tut oftener in the roping of an alligator for shifting there is used a stout scant- Iirg that is laid along the alligator's hack that is long enough to project a Soot or two at either end. beyond the al- iigator's head and extended tail.
 "They get some of the ropes around the au,aa+or around the scantling too, and Subsn thev come to the alligator's tail they % rope that to it securely. The tail is thus held perfectly secure. as Is the haad at the other end. and, when the ty- i ira. |. comDlete. they lift the alligator up and nen get under the projecting ends ot ths scantling two at either end. at the . Siiigators head and tail. and walk away