Correspondence



147



Four were packed but two died en route. Eight more were located but the

catcher, a white man, went down with dysentery and fever before these could

be roped in.


Dr. Burgess Barnett in your edition of February last mentions that the

only case of Mamba bite known to him was that of a Mamba which had been

handled for some days prior to its attack. This could not have been a Black

Mamba. No one could handle a healthy Black Mamba without being

immediately attacked.


The two I supplied ran “ right true to form ” when unpacked. Dr. Burgess

Barnett climbed to the back of the glass cage while I and his lady assistants

rushed out to the public side to watch the proceedings through the glass.

The first “ out of the bag ” was the small five-foot fellow. He was simply five

feet of quivering, pulsating rage. He opened his mouth like an angry terrier,

he hissed with malice and venomous hatred.


The second “ out of the bag ” was a larger fellow. He displayed exactly

the same unquenchable animosity to the world at large. Both snakes were

still at the back of the cage. Suddenly the smaller one saw the faces of the

ladies and myself peering through the glass. He was across with lightning

rapidity and literally hurled himself a us. The glass gave him a shock. This-

drew the attention of the bigger fellow to us. He was more cunning. He

came across, then turned as if to move away: after moving a short distance he

rose some three feet, his back towards us, and hurled himself at us backwards,

turning to strike just as he thought he had reached us. He also got a shock.

Nothing living could have dodged those two attacks in the open, unless they

had been specially prepared to meet them, and were on the look-out for them.

Even then they would have had to be terribly quick. Unlike the rest of

African snakes the Black Mamba strikes again and again. He does not retreat.

He fights to the death. He has been torn to pieces by a pack of six large

hounds, probably in less than one minute, but in that minute he struck every

hound and every hound died, one almost as the snake died, the last about one

hour after the fight. This dog was a Great Dane and probably was struck as

the snake was dying and its venom store all but used up. I am proud to have

been the first “ fellow ” of the Society to provide the Zoo with specimens never

previously exhibited in England.


H. Moore, F.Z.S.



EGG AND MILK FOR SICK BIRDS


I would like to endorse the remarks of the Marquess of Tavistock in the

February issue of the Magazine regarding the wonderful nourishing properties

of egg and milk for sick and ailing birds, especially Parrots and Parrakeets.

I recently saved the lives of two rare and valuable Parrakeets by administering

to them this food, which consists of one raw egg beaten up with a quarter of a

cup of fresh milk with the addition of a teaspoonful of brandy.


The first bird, a cock Ngau Island Parrakeet was as near death as any bird

I have ever seen: he lay limp with his eyes closed and hardly breathing,

another half-hour would have seen him dead. At first I poured the liquid

down his throat with the aid of a fountain-pen filler and repeated this each

quarter of an hour for the first day; the second day he had so far recovered that

he bit the glass filler in half, swallowing the end he bit off ! This seems to have

caused no ill effect. Later I obtained a small rubber syringe with a bone



