HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
45 
He begins by describing the journey up from 
Mombasa in motor lorries, and the difficulties at- 
tending it owing to swamps, incessant rain, terri- 
ble roads and lack of bridges (blown up by the 
Germans in their retreat). 
"After being at Aruschi," he continues, "for 
about ten days (most of the time in hospital), we 
proceeded by ox wagons to. Lolkissali, a distance 
of 50 miles, which took 12 days to perform. 
"Some parts of this road had never been 
travelled by white people before. It was cut 
through the jungle, and all sorts of wild animals 
were about at night. 
" From Lolkissali we went by mule wagon to 
Upome, 60 miles further on, and the first night 
.were attacked by lions. The giraffes are causing 
more trouble to the telegraph than any other ani- 
mals, as they go about at night and run into the 
wires and down they come, and the wire is 'dis' 
until next morning. 
"The only soft time we had was when the 
giraffes broke the wire at about 7 p.m. and then 
we knew that we were all right for a good night's 
sleep. " 
Any offers for a Lion-Tamer's Job ? 
NO MARKET FOR WILD BEASTS. 
A lion-taming problem has arisen with one of 
the showmen at Holbeck Feast, says "The York- 
shire Evening Post." 
In the "round-up" conducted by the military 
authorities on the fair ground the other night a 
young fellow of 24, named Timothy Kayes, des- 
cribed as a lion-tamer, was impressed, but was 
yesterday granted a fortnight's grace by the local 
recruiting officer before being required to "join 
up." In the interval, his father, who is the pro- 
prietor of the show, is faced with the difficulty 
of finding another lion-tamer, or, alternatively, of 
finding a purchaser for three lions, the value of 
which is placed at .£400. 
As the proprietor explained to a representa- 
tive of "The Yorkshire Evening Post" this after- 
noon, he is in a quandary. He himself is getting 
on in years, and has neither the experience nor the 
nerve to enter a cage of lions. On the other hand 
lions are a "drug on the menagerie market." He 
sees no chance of selling them, and as they are 
not the kind of animal that can be " turned out to 
grass," he is at a loss what to do with them. 
Meanwhile the show will go on for the next 
fortnight, and young Kayes, "by permission of 
the Army Authorities," will perform in the lions' 
d\r.i as usual, and will give a cheerful welcome to 
any man, young or old, who is ready to succeed 
him. "We don't anticipate a rush of applicants," 
he added. " In my own case, I became a lion- 
tamer through force of circumstances. My eldest 
brother, who used to have the job, joined the 
Army this year along with another brother, and 
my father, who. is the proprietor of the show, was 
on his beam-ends to find a man. Standing under 
five feet, I had previously been the circus clown 
and tumbler in the ring, but 1 I had been about the 
lions a good deal in assisting my brother to feed 
them 1 , and so my father asked me if I would go 
into the cage. 
"I didn't fancy the job, but I could not see 
my father 'stuck'; and, as two. of the lionesses 
had been well broken by my brother, I took the 
job on. The first time I ever went into the cage 
was some months back at Dewsbury, and I shall 
never forget the night. As soon as I got in, with 
a chair and a fork held in front of me, the animals 
knew at once that they had got a stranger, and 
they gave me a terrifying time. There were two 
doors, and, growling fearfully, seemed determined 
to keep me there. Finally my father, seeing the 
predicament I was in, got a bar to one of the 
animals, and as he forced it to a corner I dashed 
to the door and got out. 
"In another cage, where there is an untam- 
able lioness, I had a hair-raising experience before 
I got out. One of the spectators remarked, 'Tha 
looks white, lad,' and I admitted that I never 
felt so 'white' before. 
"But I have got confidence since then, and 
lion-taming is all right when you are used to it. 
Still, it is not every man-s job, and I feel sorry 
that I have to leave my father with three lions on 
his hands and no one to undertake either the feed- 
ing or the performing." 
BIRDS IN BATTLE. 
SONG OF NIGHTINGALES UNDISTURBED 
BY BOMBARDMENTS. 
M. Edmond Perrier, of the Institute of 
France, has been collecting evidence of how ani- 
mals within the firing zone are affected by the 
battle. 
He states that the mass of evidence leads to 
the conclusion that birds and wild beasts are 
