CHAPTER XXXVII 



CARL HAGENBECK, THE KING OF ANIMAL IMPORTEES. 

 A VISIT TO HIS HANDELS MENAGERIE IN HAM- 

 BURG AND TO HIS WILD-ANIMAL PARK IN STEL- 

 LINGEN 



Many people will no doubt wonder how Zoological 

 Gardens obtain their collections of animals and birds. 

 It was my good fortune to be conducted round the 

 Handels Menagerie as well as the Park at Stellingen 

 by Herr Carl Hagenbeck, the genial king of animal 

 importers. I was ushered into his office, and seated 

 upon a chair made of antelopes' horns and covered with 

 lizard skins. In front of me on a bureau were some 

 life-like bronzes of animals, modelled from living speci- 

 mens formerly in Hagenbeck's collection. Some bronze 

 elephants with real ivory tusks were remarkably well 

 executed. Above the writing-table was a portrait of 

 Hagenbeck's father framed in ivory tusks, and close 

 by a curious malformation of roe-deer's horns. The 

 room was littered with horns and skulls and curiosities 

 from every part of the world. 



' I began to collect animals when I was four years 

 old,' said Carl Hagenbeck, with a smile. ' My father 

 began business with some seals, and in 1852 he bouglit 

 the first polar bear ever seen in Europe. He exhibited 



