HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
profit, than if confided to the tender mercies of 
naturalists who say they love them, but have so 
far proved singularly helpless at protecting species 
threatened with complete ebtinction. Americans 
have stopped the feather trade in their country, 
and I do not say it did not want stopping on ac- 
count of the apparent impossibility over in the 
States of getting people to> work birds reasonably 
as is done in Europe; it is notorious that their 
game birds and wild fowl are faring no better than 
the plumage birds; for instance, the beautiful Car 
the plumage birds; for instance, the beautiful 
Carolina duck is said to be one of the vanishing 
species — yet we in poor effete old Europe have 
got it domesticated, and can send the Americans 
stock, as has been done within the last decade. 
While thus stopping the feather trade, how- 
ever, Americans have not been able, or have not 
tried, to do anything to stop the absolute exter- 
mination of birds which, unlike the Egrets, all of 
which have a wide range, fust leave the earth alto- 
gether when they are killed out of the States. 
The passenger pigeon has gone, and the White 
American Crane and the Trumpeter Swan are 
said to be fast following it; but, of course, natur- 
alists can't spare time for practical protection 
when they are worrying their heads about Dar- 
winian problems, splitting subspeeds, or wrang- 
ling about which particular crack-jaw dog-Latin 
name should be inflicted on any creature ! The 
fact is, they are not sufficiently controlled by prac- 
tical men; zoologists should be under the thumb 
of the public, and forced to show results, just 
as a doctor or engineer has to do if he is to make 
a living. 
Now and then the amateur, if he employs the 
dealer, does get on to something good; witness 
Mr. Frost's successful trip to Arn and thence to 
the West Indies with a consignment of Great 
Emerald Birds of Paradise for Sir William In- 
gram's islet of Little Tobago. The birds, it seems, 
are still thriving here, and the example should be 
widely followed; there are plenty of islands in the 
Pacific as well as the West Indies where this fine 
bird, the easiest to get and keep, could be estab- 
lished. Its yellow plumes, with the even finer 
ones of its relative, the Lesser Emerald — not such 
an easy bird to procure — are practically all the 
trade wants from the Birds of Paradise, these two 
yellow-plumed kinds being " first and the rest no- 
where" in the shops. As it takes years for the 
birds to get the full plumage, the killing off of a 
large number, at any rate, of these old birds can 
be done without injury to the stock, so that even 
if worked in the free state there need be no exter- 
mination, though Birds of Paradise are so' easily 
kept in large cages, with no more attention than 
Jays, and moult their plumes in such perfect con- 
dition, that if they were not so expensive to buy 
they might well be kept for this purpose only. 
WILD ANIMALS AS HOUSE PETS. 
" JACK," THE JACKAL, 
By Robert Leadbetter. 
"Jack" was Tuchair, his home was Nepaul, 
Some friends of mine sent him home to me in a 
funny little box, in the charge of the butcher, on 
a liner. 
When "Jack" got to London he was awfully 
fat and awfully smelly, so the butcher had been 
good to him. 
Now I should describe him as a particularly 
cute little person, not only in his looks, but in 
his ways. 
Then I think Tuchair jackals are cute — cuter 
than their African cousins. 
"Jack" soon found out I was his friend, and 
I soon found out all the raw meat he had been 
taking was the cause of his being so smelly ! So 
this was altered. 
Soon "Jackie" liked bread and milk, a piece 
of cake, a sweet biscuit, but he always had a little 
meat, of course, and raw bones. We got great 
friends ! 
"Jackie" gave up "cage life," wore a red 
collar, laid on the sofa, ran with the house dogs. 
He could stand up for himself, too, and if he flew 
at the terriers, knew the ear was a good place. 
He slept in my bed room, and had funny little 
ways — he would come and look, satisfy his mind 
I was asleep (because he had been told of this 
before), then one by one, convey boot after boot, 
to some such hiding place, as behind the curtains, 
under an arm chair, or any corner previously 
selected, and all this with scarcely a sound. 
Some nights "Jackie" would be extra careful, 
and come again, midway in operations, try and 
peer to see whether I was still asleep, stand and 
listen, holding one paw up, then hastily resure 
work. I think he thought if he could hide his 
booty without my seeing him, he would not get the 
pat for doing it, or would his hiding place be dis- 
covered- 
Another favourite little game of his was to 
run with anything, and quickly hide it in a fire 
place, laid for lighting, then turn away, and sit 
innocently on the hearth rug. Many were the 
queer places he had to hide his treasures. He 
reminded one of a jackdaw. 
One moon light night, he sat on the floor in 
the middle of my room, threw his head back and 
howled and howled as only a jackal can. But not 
for long- I reached to the candle stick, which 
stood on a table close to the bed, snatched out the 
candle, and threw it at "Master Jack." He was 
