182 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
eventually did come in for their vegetables. Meanwhile, they 
began to catch and eat swans, Bar-headed Geese, and anything 
else they could catch. The public hardly, if ever, caught a glimpse 
of them, and the swans were more attractive, so the Pygmy 
Hippos had to be caged on the lake side. Here the female finally 
killed the male and I can only suggest that the cause was that 
she had been cut off from her meat diet.” 
About a pair of ordinary hippos that had been in the Alipore 
Zoo for about thirty to thirty-five years Mr. Fooks told this 
rather gruesome story: 
“The old male, many years ago, was taught by his keeper to 
open his mouth for minutes on end while visitors admired his 
teeth. From this trick the keeper advanced to something more 
thrilling, and for one rupee put his head into the hippo’s mouth. 
One day the inevitable happened and the keeper was killed. 
“Some twenty years later, when I was Secretary, tragedy again 
overtook us. I was in Calcutta at the time in my timber office, 
when about 3:15 p.m. the ’phone rang. It was the Superintendent 
of the Zoo asking me to come at once. The hippo had killed a 
girl! Most unfortunately this was one of the Hindu poojah days 
and there were at least twenty thousand visitors. Needless to say, 
the possibilities of complication were enormous, as unless I could 
do something quickly the relations of the dead girl would in- 
crease every minute. I therefore ’phoned the police and asked for 
a small detachment to form a cordon, and also told the Super- 
intendent to procure the longest rope he could and to cordon off 
the hippo pool, allowing no one in until I said so. 
“On my arrival, after inspecting the enclosure, I found that the 
girl had been pulled in, picked up by the small of the back and 
systematically smashed against the walls of the cage until her 
entrails gushed out. Part of these were eaten by the hippo, and 
the balance taken by kites and crows which flew up into the 
surrounding Casuarina trees with them. A truly horrible business. 
“Inquiries showed that this is what had taken place. The girl 
together with several others of her caste (gipsy) were throwing 
bunches of grass to the animal, but she, probably to show off, put 
her arm under the three strands of wire topping the wall, intend- 
ing to put the grass in the hippo’s mouth, which he was holding 
