Evening star., 1936-11-25
nv w TT. SHIPPEN, JR.

w. oEhhA SbNB SA~s
A Jungle hunt for animals on the
other side of the world is apt to sound
like the grand adventure to small
bov-and like a lot of heart-breaking
work to a scientist tackling the job.
Yet DR.. William NJ Mann seems to
have a happy combination of both
viewpoints, the youthful as well as
the mature, now that he has begun
to organize a four-month expedition
to the East Indies for the National
Geographic Society and the Smith
sonian Institution.
He has a scientists outlook and
small boys enthusiasm for the task
ahead. On the one hand, he hopes
to fill the Zoos new buildings with
the worlds finest collection of man.
mails, reptiles and birds, and on the
other, he expects to get huge amount
Of fun out of the enterprise.
Plans are not complete as yet, since
the expeditions sailing date lies sew
eral months in the future, but DR..
Mann already as begun to feel the
weight of one of his most unpleasant
responsibilities - the disappointment
of those gallant young adventures
who are eager to accompany him to
strange lands across the oceans.
Has Made Many Promises.
It's been 10 years now since DR..
Mann led the Smithsonian -Chrysler
expedition to the interior Of Africa.
Since that time he as committed
himself in way to quite few boys
20 small that he was bouncing them
on his knee when they demanded:
"Dr. Mann, will you take me the
next time you 60 to hunt animals in
the jungle?"
That jungle hunt seemed far dis
tant then. and the demands were
urgent. If DR.. Mann temporized q
bit he's sorry for it now that the juve-
niles have grown up to youths idea,
on the matter of exploration and ad-
venture. DR.. Mann remembers toe
we'll when he himself looked toward
strange lands to take these disap-
pointments lightly.
Yet for almost two years now the
personnel Of the expedition has been
a closed proposition. Not one Of the
hundreds who have volunteered or will
volunteer can be enrolled, whether
scientists, experts of one type or an
other. or merely adventurous young.
sters.
Building Delayed Sailing.
The party was delayed in sailing
by the $880,000 building program al
the Zoo, and plans for the enterprise
were announced only yesterday.
The party will consist Of DR.. Mann
and his wife, Mrs. Lucy Mann, her
self naturalist and writer Of con-
siderable note; two members Of the
Zoos staff, Roy Jenier, chief keeper
of the reptile house, and Malcolm
Davis, chief keeper of the bird house.
and a photographer from the Geo.
graphic's staff.
Mrs. Mann has been studying the
Malay language for q year or more.
She is experienced in the care OF
delicate animals and in the writing
of animal stories. Both Jenier and
Davis are enthusiastic collectors. Fol-
years now they have been devotine
their vacations to searching for rare
snakes in the case OF Jenier, and rare
birds for Davis part, in Central and
South America. Jenier Is now in
Mexico on a reptile hunt. The two
keepers will be valuable when the
expedition sets up its temperament
camp in Sumatra.
To Visit Siam and Ceram.
The collectors will visit Siam on
the mainland and the Dutch island
of Ceram, almost 1000 miles east OF
Sumatra. Present plans call for al
most four months Of collecting in
equatorial jungles and in cities and
villages where rare specimens may
already be in captivity.
DIR. Mann discussed many phases
Of life in the Malay Archipelago at
the Zoo restaurant yesterday while
he lunched with a Washington ex-
pert on the subject, DR.. Hugh Nc
Cormick Smith, q former United
States commissioner Of fisheries, who
served IL years as an adviser in fish,
cries to the King of Siam