REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
211 
secured a bass broom as a convenient weapon, and ran to the spot to 
investigate. He was brother to the overseer, and the moment he 
saw whose life was imperilled he sprang to the rescue. Just before' 
he reached the infuriated beast his brother got a chance of hitting the 
bull a strong blow in the face with his hard broom, and this staggered 
and momentarily stopped the beast, who shook his head impatiently as 
animals have a habit of doing in the hope of thereby shaking off the 
pain. In that moment his victim made a straight dive for the fence, 
laid his hands on it, and was in the very act of vaulting it when the 
buffalo, seeing he was escaping surely from his vengeance, gave one 
bound with head downwards, and as his victim’s body rose in air to clear 
the fence, he brought up his formidable head and gave him far more 
assistance than he needed to reach the other side. The force of the blow 
was so great that the overseer’s hands were forced off the top of the fence, 
and he shot up a great height, landing far across the barrier — on his 
feet, and unhurt, but in a powerful rage at being made to look so foolish 
before all those men. Had he been caught in a rigid position the result 
would have been tragic; but as it was the comedy was too maddening 
altogether. In a second he was looking for a weapon with which to 
avenge himself and thrash out the stinging insult. He did not hesitate, 
as soon as he had found a convenient and particularly stout stick, to vault 
the fence a third time for that morning, and he belabored the exultant 
animal until he could hit no more. He was determined to teach him 
that such things could not be done with impunity by animals at the Mel- 
bourne Zoo, and, strange to say, the bull took the thrashing with surpris- 
ing meekness. When he was properly subdued and went off to his 
feeding-trough, both brothers left leisurely by the gate, and the men 
entered and set about their tasks with no more interference than if he 
were not present. It was rather remarkable that he had ignored the 
second brother from the first, and even after he had sent his victim 
spinning into the lawn opposite, he did not deign to notice the other 
man’s existence. 
WATER BUFFALO CALF. 
This is not an ordinary calf. Indeed, if you heard its mother’s 
opinion you would quickly understand that it is a most extraordinary one. 
But of course every mother crow thinks her baby the whitest. Still, we 
must allow the very important looking mother to take some credit to her- 
self. She is not by any means a young buffalo. She has travelled with 
Wirth’s circus all over Australia, and has been quite used to the admiration 
of many thousands of people as she marched in the arena with all the other 
