REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
7 
generally known that it is not safe to trifle with her. One man who 
learned the lesson to his cost was a very heavy, short man, weighing 
perhaps fourteen stone. He offered her some fruit, and as she stretched 
out her hand for it he gradually drew it back. Further and further 
back he went until she could stretch no more. Then he caught the 
outstretched hand, and pulled for all his might. She bore the pain for 
awhile, although he nearly dislocated her shoulder, and then she put 
out her other hand. He prepared to catch this too, but she was too 
quick for him. She had evidently calculated upon this action of his, 
and she caught his hand in a second. Then she began pulling. In a 
minute he was raised off his feet, and all his frantic efforts to recover 
his balance were useless. She pulled steadily and remorselessly, and 
got him half way over the fence. There he dangled, amid the laughter 
of a delighted crowd, unable to do a thing to extricate himself from his 
ridiculous position, and no one offering to make his punishment less 
severe. Mollie held him until he was nearly purple in the face, and 
then she suddenly let him go, to pick himself up as best he could. 
BED MAKING. 
Mollie has most human-like ways. To see her make her bed is a 
good lesson in how it should be done. She gets half-a-dozen bags and 
spreads them out on the floor of her inside cage most carefully, smoothing 
away every suspicion of a wrinkle. Then she takes a couple more and 
rolls them into a very tidy bundle, and places them at the head of her 
bed for her pillow. When all is satisfactory she takes the remainder 
of the bags and wraps herself up as cosily as a chrysalis in a cocoon, 
then she stretches herself out for a long night’s sleep. Sometimes she 
gets out the wrong side of the bed in the mornings, just like boys and 
girls do. On such days she has to be treated with great respect, and 
no one cares about taking liberties with her then. A keeper who forgot 
that it was unsafe to go into her cage when she was cross-grained, will 
remember his experience to his dying day. She caught him by the 
arm, and with her powerful hands and strong nails she tore at it until 
the bone was almost stripped of its flesh. The unfortunate man was off 
duty for nearly twelve months through the terrible mauling he received. 
WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE. 
Another man that Mollie punished did not deserve or receive any of 
the sympathy given to the keeper. He was a young man who often 
went to the Zoo, and he frequently gave Mollie a cigarette and watched 
