NEW YORK,— NEXT STOP, WASHINGTON ZOO — Shown with several Brazilian "curasow" birds 

 brought from South America are Dr. William M. Mann, director of the Washington Zoo, and 

 Mrs. Mann. Their boat, the S. S. Brazil, landed here today with 240 birds and animals aboard. 



— A. P. Wirephoto. 



Animals Docked 



Trip With Only One 

 100-Pound Rodent 



By W. H. SHIPPEN, .Ir, 



Star Staff Correspondent, 



S. S. BRAZIL AT NEW YORK, 

 June 26.— We arrived here today 

 with one of the finest small collec- 

 tions ever brought out of the Argen- 

 tine. 



Some 240 birds and animals, many j 

 of them rare in the United States, \ 

 came through the 6,000-mile jour- 

 ney with a casualty list small enough 

 to surprise and delight Dr. William 

 M. Mann, director of the National 

 Zoological Park at Washington. 



At Buenos Aires, Santos and Rio, 

 it seemed that the numbers and 

 Varying necessities of the animals | 

 might provide more work than our 

 little party of four could get around 

 to. After we got the task organized, 

 however, we were able to see to it 

 that every bird and beast had the 

 proper care. 



"After all," Dr. Mann said, "the 

 wild things didn't volunteer to come 

 along with us, The least we can do 

 is to make them comfortable and 

 provide plenty to eat and drink." 



The only large loss on the ocean 

 trip was a hugh capybura, some 100 

 pounds of the world's biggest rodent. 

 One day he was eating and drinking 

 and the next, for no apparent rea- 

 son, he was dead. We buried him 

 at sea. down along the Equator, and 

 provided extra rations for his mate 

 by way of consolation. 



The collection was increased at 

 about the same time by the birth 

 of a pair of patagonian cavies. They 



; were running over the deck within 

 an hour of their arrival. 



One baby, however, got caught 

 in the middle of a domestic quarrel 



I between its mother and father — 



| with fatal results. The other is 



I doing nicely. 



i The ocean trip was too much for 

 \ a pair of black-necked swans, al- 

 ; though half a dozen others sur- 

 1 vived, along with Andean wild ducks, 

 i king vultures, a pair of condors and 

 | a crate of oven birds, colorful 

 thrushes and Argentine quail. Also 

 1 doing well as the boat pulled into 

 ; New York this morning were the 

 ! guanacos and llamas and a pair of 

 j southern tapirs. 



' There are about 60 crates in alii 

 I while we went south with about a 

 | third that many— gifts for the zoos 

 I in Buenos Aires, La Plate and Cor- 

 | doba, Argentina. The Argentines 

 j reciprocated so generously that we 

 ! had almost too many charges on the 

 ! way home. 



• After traveling more than 12.000 

 ! miles with animals, from buffalos to 

 I snakes and wild cats, the only acci- 

 | dent which befell me occurred yes- 

 j terday, at the end of the voyage. 

 '[ A duck bit me — a little duck no 

 .bigger than a bantam hen. 

 1 ~ The collection on board is twice 

 as large as anybody expected at the 

 outset of the trip, including Dr. 

 Mann. Perhaps I should say more 

 than twice as large. 



Just before we crossed the Equa- 

 tor, a seaman came running to an- 

 nounce that a rabbit had escaped 

 and was cavorting on deck. 



"But we have no rabbits," said 

 Dr. Mann. "Just what did this ani- 

 mal look like?'* 



"A rabbit, sir," replied the sea- 

 man. 



It seems that the Patagonian cavy 

 was then giving birth to a baby small 

 enough to crawl out through the 

 wire and strong enough to run about 

 at the age of one hour. No sooner 

 was this fugitive restored to its 

 proper place than the other baby ar- 

 rived. One cavy was bom in the 

 Southern Hemisphere and another 

 in the Northern. 



Some seamen have contended they 

 could actually smell the animals 

 when they sat down to eat in the 

 galley forward. 



And some passengers, no doubt, 

 have heard several of the specimens 

 at night — especially the horned 

 screamers and the nutrias, which 

 cry like babies when they fight. 



The collection includes two llamas, 

 two guanacos, two tapirs, two 

 viseachas, five Patagonian cavies, 10 

 nutrias, one eyra or tiny wildcat 

 from the Matto Grasso, one pygmy 

 opossum, two hurones, three wild 

 dogs from the pampas and two Ar- 

 gentine wildcats. 



Assortment of Birds. 



Among the birds are a whole flock 

 of flamingoes, 10 horned screamers 

 with spurs on their wing joints, six 

 ostriches, an Argentine stork, two 

 plovers, two black storks, eight 

 curassows, 20 oven birds, the noisy 

 little songsters which build apart- 

 mentlike nests of clay ; 15 thrushlike 

 birds from Central Argentina, sev- 

 eral black-necked swans, five Casca- 

 roba geese, two Andean geese, one 

 serima, a dozen martinets and a 

 dozen tinamou, the quaillike game 

 birds of the Argentine; 5 hawks, 2 

 king vultures, 2 Andean condors and 

 10 wild ducks of various types. 



The reptiles include a box of as- 

 sorted species from the Butantan 

 Snake Farm at Sao Paulo, Brazil; 

 a broad-nosed alligator. from South- 

 ern Argentina and a collection of 

 1 frogs, turtles and toads. 



As a whole the group gives a pretty 

 j fair picture of the fauna of Argen- 

 I tina, with several remote sections 

 ! of Brazil thrown in for good meas- 

 j ure. 



| I haven't learned to identify all 



the specimens by name, although j 

 I've come to know them quite in- 

 timately — what with watering, feed- 

 ing, cleaning, etc. 



. Some passengers have been sur- 

 prised, and somewhat annoyed, at 

 my ignorance.. They usually would 

 come to inspect the animals just 

 after breakfast and before time to I 

 take their morning swim or sun j 

 bath — the hour when all four keep- | 

 ers were busiest and the deck was J 

 pretty messy with pans, pots and 

 kettles and every type of food known 

 to man or beast. 



"Young man," once said a dowager 

 (who had no business on a work 

 deck, and who held a scented hand- 

 kerchief over her nose to counteract 

 any odor that might emanate from 

 the crates stacked all around her), 

 "what is the name of that poor, 

 starved creature in that soiled box?" 



"Madam," I replied, trying hard— 

 so hard— not to slop muddy water 

 over her immaculate sport shoes, 

 "no compre Englis, no tingo, no 

 speako! Besides, you must excuse 

 me, as I have to open a box of 

 cobras." 



Questions, however, never seemed 

 to annoy Dr. Mann, no matter how 

 busy he happened to be. He gave 

 lectures on zoology to some 300 mem- 

 bers of the crew and at least half ! 

 that many passengers. 



Perhaps every man is happier J 

 about a question to which he has j 

 the answer. When they came too J 

 fast for me I could always shrug and j 

 say: 2 



"Sorry — I only work here!" 



