Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-10
TOLD IN A ZOO HOUSE
Stories Of Snakes, Tigers and
BuffaIoes.
HABITS OF CONSTRUCTORS
Wild Dogs of India Enemies Of the
Tiger.
TRAGEDIES OF THE JUNGLE
Attachments of Wild Animals for
Human Beings-When the Bison
Roamed the Prairies.
aAGEDIEs OF THE JUNGLE

They were standing in the reptile house
of the Philadelphia Zoo watching COUPE
of big snakes of the constructor brand iazhy
coiling and uncoiling themselves on the
trimmed tree that was placed in the cage
for their convenience.
Makes me think of something that hap
pened in the Philippines coed many years
ago." said the older of the two men, long
before any one in the United States sup
posed this country would ever have any
special connection with those islands.
Il was something of a rover when boy,
and through combination of circum-
stances which l won't bother you with ]
drifted to those islands, and for some time
was an engineer on sugar plantation
slept in a warehouse, and one of its other
tenants was tame python maintained that
it might keep down the rats. l was a little
shy of the creature at first, but as l had
owned a blacksnake when an upstate boy 1
soon got used to the python. 1t was sure
rat catcher, and nobody there thought
there was any harm whatever in the rep
tile. There wouldn't have been If 1t had
been let alone by everybody, but that
wasn't to be- There was one clerk in the
planters office. young Ho'lander still In
his teens. who just couldn't forego the
pleasure as it appeared to him, of occa-
s,onaIly teasing that snake.
HE was told better often enough, put ne
just had to get his lesson. which turned out
to be even more severe than was feared
Crushing Power of Constructor.
sOne day we heard an awful screech from
the interior of the warehouse. 1t was a
frightful bloodcurdling sound, and every
body who heard 1t ran TO find out what
was up.
II reached the spot in time to see the
young Hollander relax his hold on the
chimes of a sugar cask he had been leaning
against just as the python was uncoiiing
from his body.
THE clerk fell to the ground unconscious
and with peculiar. suggestive limpness
When we reached him he was quite dead.
A subsequent surgical examination showed
that practically every bone in the clerks
body was broken. not with simple frac-
lures, but into small pieces.
Later one of the native boys told about
the tragedy which he had seen. He was
all cut up about it. as he was very fond OF
the young Dutchman but not bit sur
prised, for he had often warned the clerk
of the very fate which that day had be-
fallen him.
..It seems that for the fiftieth time, per-
haps. the foolish chap had put his foot on
the snakes tail. Quick flash, for 1t
was not sluggish from recent meal, the
serpent had reared its head. seized the
Young man near the throat, and in less time
than ii takes to tell 1t had thrown three
strictor snakes. though so slow moving or
dinarily. are about as rapid as the electric
spark when they get ready to act. Any
way that poor wretch had his life squeezed
out of him before he could finish his dying
yell"
Though instances of big non-venomous
snakes actually killing men are rare. this
story is much like one that is told of
tragic end.
Chad THAR Skins Annua11u
Constructor snakes, like all others, shed
their skins once a year. Just after the old
skin is off and while the new one is forming
they lie very quiet, being tender. They are
sometimes ill-tempered a short time before
their ''moulting''s especially If they chance
to become hungry just at that time. And
as the outer integumens of the eye comes
off with the rest. they are not very clear
sighted at such time: at least that Is the
way a veteran snakehouse man always in
PRODUCES this particular story:
This here keeper" says the seasoned
ophidianist was a giving of his feed to
the sarpint and 1t couldn't see very well.
The feed was chicken. and the snake
struck for it. as snakes always do, the plan
being to kill 1t first in that way. Partly
because of bad eyesight and partly
because the chicken dodged-it was alive,
of course. and 1t was natural for 1t to dodge
the snakes aim wasn't very good.
$50 instead of catching the chickens head
in Its ugly Jaws, as the python expected to,
1t caught the keepers thumb and fastened
two teeth in it. 1t was as natural for the
keeper to Jump around and yell and let go
the chicken as 1t had been for the chicken
to dodge. and the keeper sure did raise some
rumpus The other keepers hurried up to
help him. of course, but by the time they
had got there. the boa had got couple of
coils about the keepers arm and had its
tail hooked to a bar in the cage so that 1t
was almost impossible to make 1t let go.
''They did IL after while, to be sure, but
the snake had got its mind so set on having
a meal right then, and apparently was so
well satisfied that the keepers thumb was
a chickens neck. that they had to tear one
of the teeth out of the snakes head to get
the man and the sarpint apart. No, the
keeper wasn't much hurt, but he was scared
blue. also considerably shook up like, for
the snake thrashed about some considerable
In the miX-up they had together.
NO / didn't see that mix-up; I amt
never been a keeper in an English geological
garden. but l have no reason to think 1t
amt true any more than I have that the
story of the Filipino python is exagger-
ated."
Wild Dogs and Tigers.
Talking about big snakes" said another
member of the party, I've heard that the
pythons of India sometimes attack tigers,
but / never personally knew of an in
stance.
But I have heard often that the wild
dogs of India sometimes attack tigers, and
in the same way that when the size OF the
wild dogs of that country is remembered
the Hindus consider them about the brav
est and neryiest of all the inhabitants of
the jungle.
1T isn't pretended that these dogs-'red
dogs they are sometimes called-will sim
ely attack tiger. but / have been told
many story about a pack of them tackling
full-grown tiger and getting away with
the big ugly beast. Not a big pack, I'M
derstand-the red dogs rarely gather In
packs of more than nine or ten-but in
about the same force as would assemble
to attack wolf, or a bear, and 1 know
they don't hesitate at bear.
'As to the dog and grown tiger stories
want to know more before say more,
but there Is no doubt at all but that the
red dogs in the Asiatic forests do kill
young tigers: In fact. they kill good many
OF the young of all the big cat species,
seeming to have the same antipathy for
them that tame dogs have for domestic
cats. All dogs hate all cats anyway-this
rule is one of those nearly universal ones
of which we say the exceptions prove, them
and / shouldn't wonder at ali that were
the wild dogs in India 10 be killed off IN
night there'd be rapid and distressing
relative increase OF the worlds tiger popu-
1,ks .-sx<z