WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



all the washing and scrubbing had failed to remove this 

 dreadful mark, and who, upon one occasion, was addressed 

 by a visitor, probably an enterprising inventor or proprietor 

 of a celebrated washing-powder, who offered to remove the 

 stain on the floor in less than five minutes by the applica- 

 tion of only one penny packet of his wonderful washing- 

 powder. The old lady looked at him aghast, and, with a 

 vehement gesture, exclaimed, " No, sir, it has been there 

 all these years, and I would not have it touched or rubbed 

 out by you or your washing-powder for all the world." 



So it is with many old notions and ideas most difficult 

 to banish. They last and linger on for generations, to the 

 surprise and astonishment of those who know better. To 

 be called upon to tell people that the old method of con- 

 sidering all animals amphibious that passed as much of 

 their time in the water as on the land, is looked upon as 

 absurd, for they include those creatures having no affinity 

 or relationship whatever — such as the hippopotamus, seals, 

 otters, beavers, crocodiles, turtles, penguins, and others, 

 who are only aquatic or semi-aquatic. To call these and 

 others amphibious is as confusing and difficult as to deter- 

 mine what is or is not an aquatic animal. 



I myself once suffered the misfortune of this want of 

 knowledge of discrimination on the part of the owner of 

 (what he believed and called) a very rare and wonderful 

 amphibious animal, and whose description baffled the 

 ingenuity of all who heard it to determine what it might 

 be. The incident caused no little amusement as well as 

 disappointment to one always ready to investigate and 

 determine for himself. To undertake a rather long 

 journey, and undergo the mortification of beholding a 

 common spotted cavy or paca (Ocelogenys paca) standing in 

 a puddle of water in the small garden at the back of its 

 owner's house, instead of a wonderful amphibian. To be 



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