WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



"I have been told that the way the mother hippopotamus 

 nurtures her child during its infancy is actually in the water. 

 When there with the baby she manages by some mechanical 

 process to press the milk out — the milk floats on the water, and 

 the young one instinctively sucks it. I cannot vouch for this 

 theory as I have never seen it done, and therefore give it to you 

 as it was given to me, for what it is worth. " M. W." 



Ko. 5. "Jan. 16, 1872, 



" SiK, — In the BaUy Telegraph report of yesterday, under the 

 heading ' Our last Hippopotamus,' the special reporter prefaces 

 his account of the letters of advice given you as to the proposed 

 best methods of capturing the young calf from its powerful and 

 watchful mother, with the following remark : ' Tliere is a comic 

 element in most human affairs.' Certainly the plans of chloro- 

 forming or of stupefying the dam with sulphur, which the advice 

 given offers you, are very unique, and the wiseacres deserve a 

 patent for stupidity ; but by far the most comical seems to be 

 the reporter's own reraark that 'ass's milk was made use of to 

 feed the young stranger with, because cow's milk was found to 

 be too rich.' 



" Will you kindly through advertisement in the Telegraph or 

 otherwise inform the public where this London milk is to be 

 obtained. And if you would persuade the worthy dairyman to 

 have the walls and hoardings of London chalked with his address, 

 would he not speedily realize an ample fortune ? 



" By the way, as you are in the secret you ought to profit by 

 it, if only for finding him out, and you should at once enter into 

 partnership with him, and then double and treble the present 

 stock of cows however large that may be ; and there cannot be 

 the least doubt that you, as well as he, will soon ride in your 

 carriages. 



" Wishing for both of you your well-deserved success. 



"A LovEE OF Good Milk." 



No. 6. "Nov. 9, 1872. 



"SlE,— At the death of the last baby hippopotamus you 

 expressed a wish that some travellers would discover the way 

 such animals should be treated. 



"They need not travel far to discover that all animals at 

 such a time seek seclusion. 

 " Had the poor hippopotamus then been left perfectly quiet, 



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