The Sun and the New York herald., 1920-03-28
JUJUPECKERS EGGS
ACQUIRED BY CIRCUS
John Ringling Reveals Secret
of Latest Accession to the
Greatest Show.
RAREST OF ALL THE BIRDS
Makes It's Nest in Boards and
There Rears It's Young
in Springtime.

Telephone calls from the circus. agi-
tated to the verge OF hysteria, revealed
late yesterday afternoon that the de-
tails of happening Of thrilling, even
romantic interest, awaited the arrival OF
a reporter, and couldn't one be sent
please to the circus press office In
Madison Square Garden, just to the
right rs one enters, and adjoining the
monkey eager This request seeming
reasonable, a young man Of sober, seri-
GUS disposition and a passion for the un-
adorned truth was shunted northward to
grab the item. And this is what he
wrote:
While the Saturday matinee perform
ance OF Ringing Brothers and Barnum
& Bailey was in full swing before a
crowd that jammed every chink OF the
Garden, an extraordinary scene was oc-
curing on the fringe of the show, in
the publicity office just outside the main
auditorium. A man of medium build
inclining to plumpness, half sat, half
reclned in a Morris chair while swish
ing fans manipulated by sympathetic as
6ocates refreshed him. There was
something oddly familiar about his ap-
pearance, a puzzling, haunting resem-
blance TO something or somebody.
Tradition of the Circus.
This puzzle was solved presently when
John RinglIng. an owner OF the circus
speaking in gentle and plying accents
said:
Gentlemen, you see here none other
than old Or. Dexter Fellowes of 19 Milk
street Bridgeport, Conn, a lovely old
gentleman adored by our grandparents
when they were little tots. As you are
aware, this old sardine is an institution,
a tradition, without whom the circus
would be a one-half Of one per cent.
show. His appearance astonishes you,
! observe You miss the rich long
beard so characteristic of the old Doc,
the curtains of Irish lace. the ample
ma-ha-has falling from ridgepole to
vestbule and usually worn in half
hitch around his waist. You miss these
Thiskers, Of course. and note the change
It produces, removing a quarter OF
century from his age at once; but a
disagreeable change as If the Father Of
His Country had been discovered by
history in red flannel undershirt,
1T could not be helped. however. and
was due to a most curious trait on the
part OF one of our rarest of birds, the
South American jujupecker. This intelli-
gent bird is passionately fond of the
society Of human beings. and has culti-
waited that taste to such an extreme
that II builds its nest whenever pos
sIble in boards. nesting in such advent1-
t!ous thickets, making a home for IT.
self and there rearing its young. Last
year, as some of US were aware, the
female jujupecker nested in the whiskers
OF Mr.. McQuatty, the hrsute wonder
Of Glasgow, but Mr.. McQuatty is not
with us this year and from that fact
sprang the plight of our dear old friend
Dexter.
Fast Worker on the Job.
ut seems that the ola poy toIled very
late on Friday night, too late TO go home,
and therefore made up a pallet in the
freak room and went to sleep as easily
AS an infant Sometime in the early
morning, evidently, the South American
jujupeCkeT, hunting for nesting place,
slghted upon the doctor here, singing
with Joy, for to the wise and affectionate
bird the invitation to settle down and
build within the old gentleman's dust
Catchers was too obvious to be resisted.
That Is how 1t came about. The juju-
peCker works fast in the early spring,
and when dear Dexter awakened in the
late afternoon (Alice, the elephant, was
the cause of his waking UP, by her
trumpeting after she had stepped upon
his head and bruised her right fore
foot very badly the nappy Jujupecker
had her little house all built deeply
within the thicket and four eggs laid.
You realize, gentlemen, the money
'aue Of jujupeCker in these days
rot less, should say, than $4,000 for
perfect specimen as our pair are.
1t was necessary for us to preserve
rest and eggs. How could this be
cone? Not by violently separating
them from Mr.. TellOwes's portieres.
No. 1t was coolsy determined to NOW
the whole crop of alfalfa, leaving nest
fnd eggs where they were, and trans
fer 1t to a warm and secluded spot.
That has been attended to. Meantime,
Or. Fellowes feels a little strange and
denuded like, and appears to be peeved.
Perhaps this Is natural, since the
heard already was famous long be-
fore the American civil war, but what
when needs must you know"
This appeared to be all the news
worth while at the circus yesterday,
excepting the facts. perhaps, that
Bird Millman, who spraIned an ankle
on the opening day, will trip back
upon the slack wire Tomorrow after
noon and that the children about filled
the big barn at the matinee.