Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-09-14
MOVES BYA NATURALIST
by Frederic j. Hasixin.

NUluldlA y lHt q " Lhs Asey
mond l.. Ditmars, well known curator of rep
tiles of the Bronx Geological Park here. "Viol-
ence is never necessary and therefore inexcus-
able" no says. You can get any eject you want
by simple trickery."
DR.. Ditmars, in cooperation with Charles
Urban, movie producer, is now filming the Fa-
bles of La Fontaine-those delightful old ami
NAL stories which subtly illustrate human frail-
ities-using the animals of the zoo as actors.
To make the fables effective, the animals must
portray humor and tragedy, pleasure and anger
and various other emotions quite as convincing.
ly as human screen stars. And they do. HOWE
That is what we asked DIR. Ditmars, and this Is
what he told us:
Suppose we want to photograph a scene
which shows the Elephant presiding over a
meeting of the other animals" he said. "Ac-
cording to the scenario, the elephant asks the
monkey what fault he has to find with himselr,
and the monkey can find none. L can swing from
high limbs he boasts, and run fast, but l reel
sorry for the bear; He is pig ana clumsy anu
to the bear and asks him what complaint ne
has to make concerning himself. The bear does
can crush his enemies beneath his giant paws
and he gets a splendid rest cure every winter,
but there is the poor little fox. He reels sorrs
for him. The fox, however. feels sorry for one
of his neighbors. and so it goes on clear around
the circle of animals, illustrating the human
tendency to excuse ones own faults while de-
crying the sins of ones neighbors.
FINALLY, the elephant becomes disguised. he
must register great anger ana contempt, turpins
wrathfully from one side of the animal group
20 the other. We got that by placing a man tne
elephant liked on one side of him and another
whom he hated on the other. 1t was as simple
as that. w m his b,na,eps
by placing on a roof or ledge above him lout
OF the cameras view, of course), a man VINO
holds an apple in his hand. Food Is the great
bait. You can always get a satisfactory re-
Spouse with it. Really a case Of directing the
food and letting the animal follow MS ha.oi"i
Movies of Frogs.
'There are some animals which are too smali
and nimble to make good actors continued Dr.
Ditmars. 1--WE could not use live frogs, Tor IN
stance, in one OF the fables, SO we mad 10 use
dead ones. Fortunately, we were able TO get d
large number of dead frogs from an expert
mental laboratory which had just used them IN
been to discover what kind of insects the frogs
ate, in an effort to prove whether they were OF
were not of value to the farmer. we maze Jul
fable frogs out of a plastic substance ana ap-
piled the skins Of the dead ones. Then we
moved them with invisible wires. I had to work
all day and night on those frog scenes, oeea stiII
moist. If I'd put it off until the next day. tney
would have been dried up and useless .
Here DR.. Ditmars was interrupted LOT a icy
by one of the zoo keepers, VINO conI-
municated his message in an agitated WHISPER;
The geese, it seems, IN one OF the poois ha ha
trapped into posing for the camera. They were
not hungry, and would not leave their AFTER
noon constitutional on the water Tor a sca''ei
ing of grain. ~ D,+
mars. Don't feed them until l get there' any
they will be in a conciliatory frame or mlno
then. Let me see, where was II" he said get
ting back to the interview.
what sort of creature do you find the most
difficult to photograph q we asked, steering MIN
insects" replied the doctor Immediately, be
cause they are so small. We have to trick thenl,
roo. We wanted to get some pictures OF dlfterent
species of insects which sing at nlght. iou
know that the singing is performed py s pSSIa
organs ON the wings like the bow OF the nuole.
We wanted close-ups of that singing apparatus
in action, but we had to take them under pow
erful mercury lights, and insects DO not usuaily
sing under such conditions. We finally got
around this difficulty by placing decoysIoUnea
insects-in dark boxes near those unoer tne
lights. The latter, hearing loud songs lssuins
from the dark security of the boxes, were looleu
into replying, ana the camera man secured some
excellent pictures. ,.o. nic+,res
we have obtained are of ants" continued Dlrec-
Tor Ditmars. I'VE have a splendid closeup otaH
ant dragsiTnsg sn a W. wel Snow ti y Closeup of a pair Of
scales Weighing the material. Inc result q
vealed that the ant load was ABOUT IN tne .
nronortion as a 500 pound load carried by a Loo
Filming An Ant War. -
W ecu n.sS f fwo distant ant colonies in solid
blocks Of earth, being careful to capture .ne
queens, and transferred them to the stualo taD ,'d
We set the table legs in water, so they coulo
not escape, and then ran a sash cord from one
table leg to the other. This formed a piause'
That was all that was neeaea. - 4 tbat bridge
shifting each others colonies ana on the wal
path. ~ nv
These tiny WARRIORS, you Ao -
canny way of recognizing their friends and OF
Immediately identifying ants from strange col,
onies. A stranger thrown into a nest OF anus "a
be almost instantly killed.
wild activity started up in each OF the
camps. While some guarded the entrance 10 tne
underground galleries OF the nests wnere sat ha
queens lived, others started in droves across the
bridge, The royal guard remained around tne
queen with their mandibles or jaws wloe OPEN
ready to defend her to the last.
"The battle lasted several hours untl tne
field was covered with wounded ana one SUE
finally triumphed. Proudly, they carried tne
dismembered bodies of the vanquished BACK TO
their galleries to be stored for winter 1000. Inc
eggs Of the enemy queen were also capIuieu
and removed to the victorious camp. ihese
eggs. we believe, are allowed to hatch out anu
t6e Young are kept as slaves. At any rate, the
eggs are not used as food, but are taken as part
Of the booty while the enemy queen Is always
killed. We got a charming silhouette OF the
last procession of victors (greatly enlarged OF
course) carrying their loot across the coro
bridge into camp"
(which of the zoo animals is the most DAN
serous to photograph" we asked.
1.-THE tiger is the most treacherous, repneo
DIR. Ditmars. but none of them is actually TO pc
t.Alsted. We sometime wear protective appara-
tus. The Black Mambra (see DR.. Dltmars DOCK
on ~reptiles) will spit poison in all directions
when frightened, which would be most danger
Gus IL we didn't wear goggles to protect our
eyes.
y believe moving pictures are of the great,
est possible value in teaching the public natural
history the zoo director concluded. Il nave
been producing them for years and have WORKED
out my own Photographic equipment. Amons
other things L have found a light English make
Of camera most effective. The average Ameri-
can moving picture camera is extremely heavy
and hard to move, Weighing at least 125 POUNDS
The one | use weighs thirteen pounds and the