WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
all the washing and scrubbing had failed to remove this 
dreadful mark, and who, upon one occasion, was addressed 
by a visitor, probably an enterprising inventor or proprietor 
of a celebrated washing-powder, who offered to remove the 
stain on the floor in less than flve minutes by the applica- 
tion of only one penny packet of his wonderful washing- 
powder. The old lady looked at him aghast, and, with a 
vehement gesture, exclaimed, “ No, sir, it has been there 
all these years, and I would not have it touched or rubbed 
out by you or your washing-powder for all the world.” 
So it is with many old notions and ideas most difficult 
to banish. They last and linger on for generations, to the 
surprise and astonishment of those who know better. To 
be called upon to tell people that the old method of con- 
sidering all animals amphibious that passed as much of 
their time in the water as on the land, is looked upon as 
absurd, for they include those creatures having no affinity 
or relationship whatever — such as the hippopotamus, seals, 
otters, beavers, crocodiles, turtles, penguins, and others, 
who are only aquatic or semi-aquatic. To call these and 
others amphibious is as confusing and difficult as to deter- 
mine what is or is not an aquatic animal. 
I myself once suffered the misfortune of this want of 
knowledge of discrimination on the part of the owner of 
(what he believed and called) a very rare and wonderful 
amphibious animal, and whose description baffled the 
ingenuity of all who heard it to determine what it might 
be. The incident caused no little amusement as well as 
disappointment to one always ready to investigate and 
determine for himself. To undertake a rather long 
journey, and undergo the mortificati-on of beholding a 
common spotted cavy or paca {Coelogmys faca) standing in 
a puddle of water in the small garden at the back of its 
owner’s house, instead of a wonderful amphibian. To be 
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