The daily star-mirror., 1923-07-03
CROCODILE HUNT
THRILLING SPORT
Field Museum Collectors Find
Ample Excitement in the
SWamps of Honduras.

Chicago.-"Have you ever played
! hide and seek with a crocodile at
| night?" asks Karl o. Schmidt, who.
with Leon L. Walters, just returned
! to the Field museum after four
months in Honduras collecting reptiles.
"The game is exciting, especially If
played in swampy forest. And if the
crocodile tags you you'll certainly
realize you're it But in this case"
and he holds up the skin of vicious
| five-footer, II got him first.
"This specimen I got in British Hon
duras. We had caught several smaller
ones but wanted big fellow. They
only grow to about five feet there
we later got some eleven-footers in the
republic Of Honduras. But on this
night Walters and I went out with the
customary headlights on our forehead,
all ready to kill. The headlight daz-
zles the eyes of the animal and gives
the hunter the advantage Pretty soon
1 saw this brawny chap slavvering
around in puddle about foot deep.
Blinded Creature Good Wrestler.
Il shot twice for his ear but missed
The second bullet scraped his head and
about half-stunned him so that he be-
gan to navigate wildly In circles.
thought I'd lose him then, but all at
once I found him right near me. l
didn't take chance on shooting, but
just poked my fingers into his eyes
and pulled him out like that. The eye
sockets are rather deep and give you a
good hold on the chap. Well, then l
grabbed his mouth, but he kept squirm-
ing around in my hands so I could
hardly hold him. Walters came up
just in time to keep the beast from
getting away.
1--WE tied him, but even after that
his muscles were so strong that he
could roll himself around on the
ground like an animated cylinder. He |
could have got away into the swamp in |
no time if we hadn't tied him to tree.
Well, here he is poor fellow. And |
there is the plaster mold Walters made |
of him. | have a sort of affection for |
him now. He gave me a good time Of
it, all right. But ! didn't try to get |
any bigger ones by hand. No, not after
that"
The collection brought home by
Schmidt and Walters also includes
specimens of a tree climbing salaman- !
der, an animal about four inches long
that lives in the tubular leaves of the
air plant. These leaves always con-
tain water in their bottoms. 1t is here
that the salamander exists. Among the
specimens of this kind taken by the ex-
,lorers are several new species.
Heller En- Route With Specimens.
John T. thinner has returned from a
rear OF explorations in Peru. He told
# meeting Edmund Heller, another of
he Field museums collectors, in Peru
n April, 1922.
For more than a year Heller and
IFS wife have been securing South
American hills and forests in search
f specimens of mammals to stuff and
ring back to the Field museum. They
re also bringing few live rarities for
he Lincoln park zoo. The two are
low on their way here from New York.
Among the collection to be mounted
or the museum are the leaf-nosed bat;
he oil bird, or owl that is not an owl,
species of which thousands of speci-
nens were found in the Lechuza cave
nd from whose fat young the natives
make fine salad oil vampire" ami
nal like bear with tooth like the
lade Of knife, and others equally
id.