58 
/v. «*^- 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
stopped all purchases in that region. Besides, I 
believe Ourans die whilst travelling". Should this 
conisgnment go forward and any profit be shewn, 
I will give twenty pounds to any Showmen's 
Charity this youthful controller likes to name. 
Ourans and tigers alone — failure; but ourans, 
tigers, elephants, rhinocerus, black leopards, with 
a general assortment of small stuff might shew a 
profit next February. 
In conclusion, I must say that there are vast 
possibilities for the Animal Trade at the concusion 
of the war. Mr. Jordan's idea is an excellent one 
provided it is in capable hands. I have already 
Agentis in Calcutta, Sumutra, and South Africa. 
I can assure Jordan with his Syndicate of Ama- 
teurs I shall prove a worthy foe. I have no fear 
for the future; they shall have all the opposition 
they want, and the top dog will ultimately prove 
to be 
JOHN D. HAMLYN. 
15th November, 1917. 
Interesting Letter from The Zoological 
Gardens, Copenhagen. 
Kobenhavn, den, 
3/10/17. 
Dear Mr. Hamlyn, 
To-day I have received your letter of Septem- 
ber 13th, for which I thank you, hoping you have 
received the money for the Sea Lion which un- 
fortunately died. 
Next spring I shall perhaps want to buy 
some more animals, but at present I cannot afford 
to do so, and moreover the export from England 
to Denmark is stopped as you know for uncertain 
times. 
Things do not look very bright here in the 
Zoo. The crops were unusually small in Den- 
mark last summer, and we are cut off from any 
supplies from England an dAmerica, consequently 
the hay and the straw, and all sorts of corn, are 
only to be had at exhorbitant prices, or not to 
be had at all. Rice and fruits from the Southern 
Countries, and pea-nuts that the monkeys can 
hardly do without, are impossible to get hold of. 
The only bright point is that the meat is going 
to be cheaper presently, as the farmers have to kill 
lots of horses and cattle because they cannot ob- 
tain sufficient foodstuffs for them. The fuel is 
also frightfully dear. But luckily I have pro- 
vided the Zoo with coke and with hay in good 
time so that I am hoping to be able to carry every- 
ting through this winter without losing any of the 
animals for want of food and warmth. 
Perhaps you would like to know what the 
German dealers in animals are doing. I do not 
think that they are doing anything but keeping 
quiet and hoping for peace. 
The park in Stellinger is open, and visited by 
quite a good number. 
It had 60,000 visitors at Whitsuntide. Mr. 
Lorenzo Hagenbeck, who is the younger of the 
two sons, has been staying here in Copenhagen 
all last summer with his circus and some excep- 
tionally fine groups of animals, lions, tigers, polar 
bears and elephants. He bought a good deal of 
animals from the Copenhagen garden when he 
left, and I bought a few from him. 
Last summer another dealer from Hanover 
visited me. I have also bought some animals 
from him, amongst which were a young male 
giraffe (4 years old), and a couple of excellent 
Cape buffaloes. 
He also told me that he had sold most of 
his larger animals, and those left he had deposited 
in different German gardens to be fed and cared 
for until the end of the war. I have not been in 
Germany myself since the spring of 1916, and am 
therefore unable to tell you anything from there, 
but I know that the German gardens have suffered 
from the war, as they have not received any ani- 
mals for more than three years. Most of the 
gardens, however, seem to have kept up so far, 
even if their animals are few and considerably 
diminished in species. 
Concerning the Danish gardens, I am glad 
to say that 1916 was an excellent year, while 1917 
has been as good. At present we are in posses- 
sion of' many fine animals, especially the carnivora; 
we have 7 lions, 3' tigers, 2i pumas, 21 leopards, 1 
hyaena-dog, 1 jaguar, and so on. Then we have 
3 elephants, and the female — Ellen — who has al- 
ready had 3 calves, and seems now to be with 
young for the fourth time. 
During the last year a lot of animals have 
given birth to young ones. In this way we have 
2 leopard cubs, 3 1 blackbucks, 1 guanaco, 1 llama, 
1 wapitii, 1 buffalo, some prairie dogs, with other 
smaller animals. 
Then our birds have hatched many young 
ones, and amongst those are Larus marinus, and 
Larus argentatus, moorhen (Gallimula chlorpus), 
Gallus bankiva, Guinea doves, Swans, Wild Ducks 
(Anas boscas), different pheasants, and so on. 
The four rattlesnakes we had from you are 
still living and in good condition, though they 
have not eaten since they arrived. 
We have a couple of excellent Python bivit- 
tatus, the' largest one is 6 metre slong, and one 
female Python reticulatus is 7! metres long, and 
which some years ago laid eggs here in the gar- 
dens. All in all we have a good collection of 
snakes, together with 14 Crocodiles of 4 different 
kinds, one of them is a Chinese Alligator (Alliga- 
tor sinensis) from Yang-se-Kiang. 
