HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
77 
ers, their giants and dwarfs, and " finny, monsters 
of the deep" all going - strong. In those days the 
menageries and lion-tamers were "nine days' won- 
ders" for Norwich folks; and the thrilling scenes 
at the "Wild Beasts" never failed to draw big 
houses. The most popular tamer of his time was 
Macomo at Manders' menagerie. He was be- 
lieved to be a Zulu, and had been a sailor; and he 
was certainly the hero of many daring exploits 
in the lions' den. During a show at Yarmouth 
Fair in I860, he was performing with half-a-dozen 
lions and lionesses, when one of the beasts at- 
tacked him. The trigger of Macomo's pistol 
caught in the animal's mane and went off, with 
the result that one of the spectator's lost an eye, 
for which £150 had to be paid as compensation. 
At the Christmas Fair in the following year the 
tamer was attacked by a young lion and was 
severely mauled before the fierce brute could be 
beaten off. 
Some time after that Macomo' had another 
narrow squeak, for he was knocked down by a 
lion in the den, and escaped with the loss of a 
finger. In 1867 we find him in Norwich again 
putting lions and tigers through their paces; and 
he finished his long and adventurous career in 
safety, with many medals and thrilling memories. 
His successor, McCarthy, was not so lucky. 
He had lost an arm whilst performing with lions 
'at Myers' circus, in the early sixties, and in 
1872, at Bolton, he was knocked down by an 
angry beast, and lost his life. 
Then there was the daring Delmonico, the 
famous lion trainer at Wombwell's great men- 
agerie — who subsequently went into the theatrical 
business. 
Another notable performer was Sandalla, a 
black man, who specialised in the training of' 
wolves and hyenas at Day's menagerie, and had 
an exciting "turn" in the shape of a boxing match 
with a black bear. It was a study in "black and 
white" to see the black trainer and black bear 
pummelling ealh other in a whitened cage. And 
even in these modern days, the courage of the 
hild beast trainer — and the very riskiness of the 
business — furnish the biggest attraction of the 
travelling menagerie. 
Also that on November 5th, 1788, a large 
tiger, worth over £200 which was exhibited at 
the "Bear" Inn in Norwich, broke loose, and 
after devouring two monkies, was again secured. 
The tiger died soon after, from a brass collar and 
chain which he had swallowed, having gangreened 
within him. 
OUR RARE LITTLE FRIEND, THE 
WILD CAT. 
By Felix J. Koch. 
Ever see a real American wild cat? 
No — no pun intended — not some poor, stray 
Tabby, who's escaped from a home where cuffing 
and starving and so on was the rule of the day, 
until the cat .preferred to take chances and go off 
and wander — but a real wild cat, a wild animal 
quite as much as bear, tigers, lions, what you 
would, are? 
Chances are that, unless you happen to live 
in a wild cat country, away off from the ordinary 
paths of men, you didn't; for wild cat are hard 
to take alive, nor do they thrive well in captivity, 
and so comparatively few the zoos or travelling 
menageries which are possessed of one. 
Interesting creatures, however, these wild 
cat's; the real wild stock that has come down from 
the same ancestors to which Pussy, on our hearth, 
or the Tom-cat on the fence must, eventually, 
trace his remotest lineage. 
As a matter of fact, the wild cat, both the 
American and the European type, and, inciden- 
tally, our domestic cat as well, belongs to> the 
great family of Lynx. 
In sections the American wild cat is even 
known as the "bay lynx" — the Felis rufa, or 
Felis montana, of the scientist. It is, normally, 
two and a half feet long and should tip the scale 
at somewhere less than twenty pounds. 
The head of the wild cat is round, the body 
is slender, the legs are long, and the soles of the 
feet are naked, the hind feet, curiously enough, 
being partially webbed. The ears are large and 
nearly triangular, and are tipped with coarse hair, 
which are shed in the summer. The throat, in its 
turn, is surrounded with a ruff of long hair. The 
tail is short and slender and turned up at the 
end. 
The wild cat's general colour is of a yellow- 
ish brown or bay; there is a line of darker brown 
rising from the shoulders to the tail, and circular 
longitudinal stripes of a similar shade upon the 
back. The sides are spotted with dark brown. 
The American wild cat is very extensively dis- 
tributed, being found in all the less settled por- 
tions of North America, from Latitude 60i N. to 
the Tropics, where Man has not made it extinct. 
In the warmer parts ol the United States, es- 
pecially, it was abundant, so much so that it 
became a nuisance, thanks to its depredations 
upon the eggs and poultry of the plantations. It 
usually chooses the wooded steeps of hills, or 
thick, swampy forests for its haunts, and, given 
the chance, it feeds on rabbits, eggs, squirrels, 
partridges, fish, and, indeed, almost any small 
quadruped it can master, or on any bird it can 
manage to seize. Thanks to this, the hens, ducks, 
geese and turkeys of the farm yard fall victims 
to its veracity, wherefore Friend Farmer, these 
many years, has been after him with his gun. 
In days of old, when those birds were still 
abundant in the States, one student of the wild 
