HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
ANIMALS IN WAR-TIME. 
Baboons are up in price, alligators scarce; any- 
one who wants to add a Tasmanian devil, a sea- 
lion, or even such common things as Polar bears 
or peccaries to his domestic circle has now to pay 
twice as much as would have been enough twelve 
months ago. And this is all due to Teutonic ambi- 
tions, said Mr. Hamlyn, the famous menagerie 
keeper of St. George's Street, East, in an inter- 
view yesterday. While the English housewife has 
been bemoaning the rising prices of butter and 
eggs, or watching the fluctuations of coal and fire- 
wood with anxious eyes, matters have been getting 
serious in other and unexpected directions. If the 
Avar has not succeeded in reducing us to actual 
hardships as far as food goes it has played havoc 
with our supplies of live seals and grizzlies, skunks 
and platypus, foreign parrots and giant tortoises, 
and all those other foreign things in fur and feather 
the public loves to see at the Zoo, but never stops 
to ask how or whence they come into our hands. 
It is not so much that we are no longer able to 
import these creatures, Mr. Hamlyn explained, as 
that the home demand has decreased, while 
nothing at all is coming from Germany, who, up 
till last autumn, added to her multitudinous com- 
mercial activities by making herself the interna- 
tional clearing-house and general distributing 
centre of wild stock for the whole of Europe. 
In this she had an advantage in a geographical 
position which enabled her to supply the public 
gardens and private collectors of Russia, Italy, 
Austria, France, and other countries much more 
easily than we could. Her banks, too, have never 
failed, in this as in larger matters, to stand behind 
thedr compatriots in the way of financial advances. 
Thus it came about that the German dealer was 
able to go to India, Africa, or our Colonies and 
purchase British-born wild animals by the hundred 
where we only ordered dozens, and birds by the 
thousand when the home markets could only take 
scores, and an industry particularly our own passed 
largely into the hands of the enemy. 
Daily Telegraph, April 7th, 1915. 
GENERAL NOTES. 
That the additions to the Zoological Society's 
Menagerie for the week ending May 2nd, 1915, 
include : — Mammals : 4 Canadian skunks, 7 
Prairie wolves and 21 hybrid moufion. Birds : 1 
masked grass-finch, 1 pin-tailed whydah-bird, 2 
black-tailed weaver-birds, 1 black tanager, 1 
Houbara bustad, 24 gold pheasants and 1 bur- 
rowing-owl. 
That in one week in April the following private im- 
portations arrived. It is the more remarkable 
inasmuch as the respective owners all asked the 
extraordinary figure of £150 a lot. 
Two Congo Chimpanzees — £150 asked. (So 
far as I know, only the smallest of the two have 
been sold.) 
Two Gibbons from Sumatra — £150 asked. 
Two Ourang-Outangs from Sumatra — £150 
asked. (The ultimate destination of these two 
lots are, so far as I know, undetermined.) 
That a consignment of Senegal Birds is shortly 
expected, being a direct importation from Sene- 
gal. I wish the importer every success in this 
very risky undertaking. 
That the arrivals in London the past month have 
been practically nil — only sixteen Pennant Par- 
rakeets from Australia. 
That the arrivals in Liverpool have been some 94 
Amazon Parrots, 1 Sun Bear, 1 Bush Cat, and a 
few African Parrots with G African Monkeys. 
That the arrivals ex Rotterdam, Parkestone Quay, 
have been some 3,000 Canaries collected in 
various parts of Holland. Also Carolina Ducks 
with other Waterfowl. 
That Mr. George Jennison, of the famous Belle 
Vue Gardens, Manchester, was in London lately 
and made extensive purchases. 
That Volpy's Italian Circus (sole proprietor, Mr. 
E. H. Bostock) is meeting with great success 
on its tour of South Africa. 
That the exports to the United States, so far as I 
know, have been the below mentioned, all per- 
sonally collected here from various amateurs 
and Zoological Gardens : — 21 various Kan- 
garoos, 5 Capybaras, 2 Emus, 4 Rheas, 2 Indian 
Bears, 8 Impeyan Pheasants, 6 Javan Peafowl, 
5 talking Grey Parrots, 4 Macaws, 16 various 
Monkeys, with other odds and ends. 
That last year I sold a customer in Somerset a 
pair of Demoiselle Cranes; he now writes : — 
"Dear Sir, 
You will be interested to hear that the two 
cranes that I bought from you have laid two 
eggs; and I should now like to know whether 
it is possible to rear these birds in this coun- 
try. If so, would you kindly give me all 
details of the measures I ought to take to 
that end." 
I should be pleased to hear from any of my 
readers on this matter, which information I 
would gladly send to my client. I believe it is 
seldom that the Demoiselle Crane breeds in 
this country. 
Printed by W. J. Hasted & Son, (T.U.), 306, Mile End Road, London, E. 
