The Ely miner., 1932-04-01

would never have had the thrill of looking upon
the only authentic man-eating tiger ever brought
TO this country, the biggest king cobra ever cap
tured alive two Of the exceedingly rare Indian
rhinoceroses and the tiniest baby elephant Gust
two feet and ten inches at the shOulder) ever
brought across the seas.
But lest that statement appear to be too para
dOxical let it be explained at once that she was
the mother Of Frank H Buck who as a col
lectOr of live animals, reptiles and birds, is
without a peer in the world today. She had dis
covered her young busily engaged in the
capture OF a big, angry, buZzing rattlesnake near
the Buck home the outskirts of Dallas Texas,
and the laying on of hands" ceremony was OBJ
served forthwith to convince him that there
were less dangerous way for lad Of his years
TO earn money. (He was collecting rattlesnakes
because an old doctor in Minneapolis Mimi.
who manufactured a magic snake OIL was in
the market for the reptiles).
Frank Buck will tell you that the ceremony
was performed in a mC st thorOughgOing fashion.
But il failed Of its purpose For from his earlf-
est childhood wild animals and birds fascinated
him and the desire TO possess them was his
mastering passion. So the mother who tried
to shape the destiny of the foremost exponent
of the art Of bringing 'em back alive" was due
to be foiled from the beginning.
When the Buck family moved TO Chicago. the
boy, no longer able 10 capture small wild ami
mails and birds as he had done on his native
soil. haunted the Lincoln Park zoo and the pet
stores in the big city, feasting his eyes on
strange new animals and birds from far-of cor
ners OF the earth What money he was able TO
save he invested in owning some of these birds
paying for one pair, incidentally, price ten
times as great as he himself could charge when
years later he became a collector.
When he grew older Frank Bucks hobby took
him to South America in search of rare birds.
This was followed by a. second trip to the south
ern continent and when he sold his collection
of live birds he found the deal profitable
that he resolved to go in for wholesale bird and
animal collecting. And that was the beginning
of a unique career.
Now, after Is years in the business. he can
look back upon record Of having crossed the
Pacific ocean 40 times of having circumnavt-
gated the world Eve times, Of knowing more.
perhaps. about the fauna of Asia than any 9TH
er living man. For here is the impressive list
of creatures which he has brought back alive:
Thirty-nine elephants; 60 tigers (Royal Ben
gal Malayan and Manchurian) % spotted
leOpards; 20 black leopards: 10 clouded leop-
ards; 4 Himalaya snow leopards; 20 hyenas;
80 erang- -utans; 81 gibbon apes (white-handed,
silvery agile, Hooock's and siamang); over
5000 monkeys Of different varieties: 20 tapirs:
40 Asiatic antelope and deer including black
buck nilgai antelope. Indian gazelle axis deer.
or pigmy water buffalo sadang Malayan
gaur; 1 babirussa (rarest Of wild swine);
African cape buffalo; IS African antelope, in
cluding sable waterbUck and the rare white
ory1 of the Sudan; 2 giraffes; 40 wild goats
and sheep. including Markhor goats. Barbary
sheep. Malayan serow and Punjab sheep: IL
eamels; 40 kangaroos and wallobies: Indian
rhiAoceros (the rarest and most valuable wild
animals now in AmericaC; 40 bears including
Malayan. honey bears. Himalayan black bears
and Indian sloth bears: 90 large 2. thons lover
20 feet In length) king cobra Largest ever
captured aIivel; over 100 small snakes, includ-
ing half grown pythons. cobras. vipers and 9TH
er varieties: 5 great monitor lizards: Is
dies; over 500 small mammals Of different spe-
cies, including cvet cats, Asiatic squirrels bin
turongs. wild dogs MUSINGS. porcupines. marble
cats ant-eaters, etc; over 100000 birds, rang
ing all the way from the big ostrich-like casso-
varies Of the Panpan islands down 10 Australi-
an fnches as small as humming birds. and in
cluding cockatoos. parrots, birds Of paradise.
swans. cranes. peafowl Himalayan song
thrushes. and such rare pheasants the Impe-
yan, argus, tragopan blood. freback, Bulwar's
and Prince of Wales.
Today Frank Buck can go into almost any
zoo in the United States or walk through the
nnenagerie tent OF any circus and. looking
through the bars of the cages. greet the inhabi-
tant thereof as an old friend. For It was he
who brought that inhabitant from his native
haunts TO this place so that the thousands of
Americans who have before only heard of the
existence Of some strange animal can see the
animal in the flesh.
Obviously a with such a record has had
more than his share Of thrills and narrow es-
capes from death. Obviously. too, account
of them could not be told within the space of
this article any more than full account of
them could be told In the hook "Rring En- Back