46 



HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 



stewed with onions makes quite a good dish, and 

 we all enjoyed our dinner when elephant trunk 

 constituted the main item of the menu. 



The news of the capture of the baby elephant 

 spread far and wide, and people came long dis- 

 tances to see it. One morning several farmers 

 and the local clergyman left their carts on the 

 velt and walked over to inspect "Jumbo," as he 

 had been named. The latter took it into his head 

 to strole in the direction of the carts. The horses 

 took fright and several of them bolted. The sky- 

 pilot's cape cart was upset bat was) fortunately 

 brought to a standstill before much damage was 

 done. 



On another occasion a particularly stout old 

 ladv got down from the cart and was walking to- 

 ward the camp wheal she spotted Jumbo about 100 

 yards away, trotting in her direction. She also 

 took fright and made a dash for her cart which 

 she reached in a breathless condition; meanwhile 

 the elephant, who was quite innocent of evil 

 designs toward her, had turned round and gone 

 back to camp. We rema : ned with our hospitable 

 hosts until the following Friday, when we reluct- 

 antly bade good-bye and returned to civilization 

 and the daily round of work. We all look back 

 with the most pleasant recollections of a holiday 

 which contained many unique and interesting ex- 

 periences. 



I greatly regret that the baby elephant men- 

 tioned above died two days after purchase by my 

 representative, S. W. Shaw, in the Addo Bush. 

 He writes as follows : — 



" Unfortunately the greatest accomplish- 

 ment I made, viz. , the baby elephant, ended 

 disastrously, which I feel very keenly. How- 

 ever, it has taught me one severe lesson., not 

 to ship any elephant unless it is eating solid 

 food, even if it need be somewhat larger. 

 In their milk stage they must have an atten- 

 dant night and day with a milk bottle,. This 

 little fellow could not feed himself; he had to 

 be fed through the medium of a bottle right 

 into' the mouth. If he had been crated he 

 would never have reached England." 



I have no wish to hurt the feelings of my 

 representative, but he evidently does not under- 

 stand the treatment of baby elephants. 



In the first place he should never have paid 

 £120 for a baby elephant in the bush. The ut- 

 most for such a delicate animal is worth between 

 £25 and £50. Not a penny more. The risk is so 

 great with these young animals that £50 would 

 be a fabulous price to pay for any freshly caught 

 animal in the bush. 



The old hunters had a price for the day of 

 arrival of the animal in camp and also a price 

 for thirty days after. 



My readers can judge from reading the above 

 interesting "account what it would cost to bring 

 the baby down to the railway, and then down to 

 the shipping port, and then to London. The 

 cost would be enormous. Out of all proportion 

 to the value of the elephant. 



The Cape Government- — so my representative 

 informs me — requires £120 cash down same day 

 of capture, or £300 one month after capture. 

 Both figures are absolutely impossible, also highly 

 ridiculous; anyway, I have cabled Shaw to have 

 nothing more to do with Addo Bush elephants. I 

 leave that business to those who have more money 

 than brains. J.D. H. 



8& 



INTERESTING EVENT in EDINBURGH 

 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



A KING PENGUIN'S EGG HATCHED. 



Professor J. C. Ewart in "The Scotsman" 

 writes : — 



For some weeks three of the king pengu'ns 

 in the Zoological Park have attracted an unusual 

 amount of interest. They have been patiently 

 protecting and at the same time providing the 

 heat required for the incubation of an egg laid 

 on the 1st September. 



In the king penguin the egg, instead of being 

 laid in a nest and incubated in the usual way, rests 

 from the first on the upper surface of the feet, 

 and is so firmly pressed against the legs by an 

 apron-l:ke fold of skin from the lower abdomen 

 that even when the "sitting bird" is lifted bodily 

 from the ground, the egg is seldom dropped. The 

 mother bird with the assistance of her mate and 

 an unemployed member of this small colony, have 

 been rewarded for their care and devotion since 

 the egg was laid by the appearance, on the 24th 

 October, of what seems to be a healthy normal 

 chick. 



Even if the mother penguin, with the help of 

 her mate, fails to rear the chick, it will not have 

 lived in vain, for it will enable ornithologists to 

 ascertain, amongst other things, whether in the 

 king penguin, as in the ringed penguin, there is 

 a natal as well as a juvenile coat of down. 



It may be mentioned that the king penguin 

 lives under less trying conditions than the great 

 emperor penguin, for while the latter lives near 

 the Pole, the king never crosses the Antartic 

 Circle — two favourite haunts of the king penguin 

 being South Georgia and the Macquarie Island, 

 about 600 miles S.W. of New Zealand 



