CAGING NEW ANIMALS.
TRANSFERRED FROM A OIROUS TO HOMES IN THE PARK MENAGERIE.
Crowds Watch the Pleasing Function on the North Side That Is Full of Novelty and Excitement-Interest Centers on a Prospective Contest Between Elephants, but Harmony Prevails Without an Introductory Battle-Some Desperate Conflicts Caused by the Newcomers.
All that was lacking yesterday to make the frequenter of Lincoln Park think he was at the circus was the canvas roof, the center pole, and the loud-voiced vender of the "double-jointed California groundnut." Everything else was there, including the clowns. The menagerie display was particularly strong; not in the noxious odors of damp sawdust and red lemonade "at five, at five, with the matrimonial strawberry," but in the exciting scenes of the exhibition. There were desperate struggles between men and wild beasts, and short, sharp, and bloodless, combats between savage brutes of the same species. The show was incidental to the
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PERSUADING THE SPOTTED CAVY.
transfer of a lot of valuable wild animals from the wagon cages of Irwin Bros.' circus to the dens in Lincoln Park. In consideration of the benefit the animals will be as exhibits the Park Commissioners have provided the greater and better part of the menagerie with a winter home. The cages were hauled to the park night before last and grouped about the animal house. The big elephant, Alice, was led through the streets and chained to a stake in the peacock yard.
It's easy enough to transfer an animal from one cage to another, if said animal has no yearning for human flesh, no inborn hatred of humankind, and is willing to be transferred. Yesterday, for instance, one of the circus men picked up a raccoon under one arm and "Toby, the educated hog," under the other, and carried them from wagons outside to cages inside, and no harm came to him, even if Toby did bawl most lustily. The same circus man carried the "dry land hippopotamus" snugly in his arms and is still able to mingle freely with his neighbors. The cockatoos and monkeys were handled expeditiously, and the ant-eater, a curious, pretty, and costly little quadruped, was carried by the "scruff" of the neck. The tapir, a rare beast, and in this
ESCAPING THE BABOON TO HIS NEW QUARTERS.
case a beautiful and docile specimen, was as gentle as a sheep. The spotted cavy, a curious little creature from South America, was somewhat reluctant to leave his home, and had to be snared behind the forelegs and carried at the end of an iron pole.
To transfer an untamed carnivorous quadruped from a cage to a den, a "shifting-box is highly essential. This is simply a strongbox with a sliding iron-bar door at one end. That end is placed opposite and close to the door of the cage, both doors are opened, the animal is "shooed" or poked into the shift- ing-box, the slidıng door is closed, and the box and animal are carried on men's shoulders to the den, where the unloading process is simple enough. Yesterday the spotted leopard and the mountain lion were transferred without any demonstration other than an angry growling and showing of teeth, but the black leopard proved to be a troublesome customer. When the men approached her cage she flew at the bars and bit and scratched them. She refused to leave her quarters and fought long and dexterously against the process of snaring. The rope once around her neck she fought as a bulldog never thought of fighting, split her claws, broke her teeth, and cut her jaws on the iron rod that carried the running noose. Even when dragged from the cage into the shifting box she retained her hold
MOVING THE "DRY LAND HIP."
with paws and jaws upon the bar and clung sys tenaciously that her mouth had to be pried open with other iron bars before her hold could be broken. When placed in a den be herself she sought the farthest corner and spat out defiance and hatred to her heart's content. Her ill nature is overlooked because she is a rare and valuable animal.
The babboon, which is as large as a good chunk of a boy and has the strength of several: men and the ferocity of a lion, made a stubborn, noisy resistance. He was not put into the shifting-box, but was snared and dragged from his cage and led and hauled into the animal house and chucked into a stout wire cage where he could think over the performance and come to such conclusions as he saw fit. Probably the most interesting of the animals is the African beast known only as the "dry land hippopotamus." It is about as large as a yearling pig, has a rough, flesh colored hide, sparsely covered with bristly, red hair, a head shaped like a brick, and a hare lip of magnificent proportions; large, beautiful dark eyes, short ears, and webbed feet. Even the circus men do not know the proper name of the amphibian and no one who saw it yesterday had ever seen its like before.
Fun for the crowd did not céase when the work of transferring had been finished. The old leopard and the jaguar, in whose den the new spotted leopard had been placed, resented what they regarded as an intrusion and each of them "took a fall" out of the stranger just to show her that she was not to be boss. They did not injure her, but frightened her
and at the same time gave the spectators an idea of how leopards begin a tussle. Each grabbed her at odd times by the throat and, with a movement that would win the championship for any Græco-Roman wrestler, flopped her on her back so quickly that she didn't know what power had thrown her, The reverse order was observed in the mountain lion's den; the newcomer was boss. The three old residents essayed, each in turn, to convince the stranger that he was to be fourth in importance, but the circus lion had seen so Each The much "scrapping " in his time that he felt self-reliant and before that he had been an hour in his new home he had convinced
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LASSOING THE BLACK LEOPARD.
his comrades that, although they answered very well as exhibits, they were not " in it " when biting and scratching were allowed. In justice to the Lincoln Park trio it must be stated that they gave the stranger fair play, fought him one at a time, and accepted defeat gracefully.
It was expected that the elephants would maul each other when put in the same inclosure. All the morning Ducbess had been uneasy; she seemed to know that a sister elephant was near. Keeper Devry concluded that if the big pets were to have a contest for supremacy the matter ought to be decided at once, About 2 o'clock he led Alice to Duchess' inclosure. The latter snorted and raised her trunk aloft, and a battle seemed imminent. Having passed the age of 25– she is now 28 years old–Alice had tusks. These gave her an unfair and perilous advantage over the other elephant; so Keeper Devry S sawed the tusks off close to her trunk before opening the gate of the yard. Then Alice, who is a kindly beast, stalked in. The crowd was pleasantly disappointed. Duchess a refused at first to make friends with her b new found sister, but, under the persuasive influence of the sharp iron prod, was induced to "mile up" and stand quiet at Alice's side. Presently the two thick-skinned monsters,
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BILLY WELCOMES THE NEW LEOPARD
which are as near as can be of one size rubbed noses and trunks and peace settle over the elephant shed.
Two of Buffalo Bill's expert Mexican lassoo throwers were on hand to assist in the boxing of the buffalo bull. His shaggy lordship declined to be captured, but the Mexicans flirted one rope over his head and others around his hind legs, and then threw him. Before this he led his captors a lively chase around the yard, and when cornered he bellowed and pawed the ground savagely enough to terrify a tenderfoot, and with one rope around his neck he dragged his captors from tree to tree with lightning rapidity until the lariat was made fast to a stout oak, After his lordship had seen that no harm was intended and had become somewhat reconciled to captivity he was hauled into the big crate, boards were nailed across the top, and the monarch of the plains was packed like a piano. The crate was loaded into a wagon and driven off to the circus tent where another buffalo bull took his place and was hauled back to the park and easily turned loose among the herd.
As the matter stands today the park's collection of zoological curiosities is richer by one elephant, one tapir, one black leopard, one mountain lion, one spotted leopard, one dry land hippopotamus, one anteater, one babboon, one spotted cavy, five fine monkeys, a lot of cockatoos, a raccoon, and a pig. The Park Commissioners have an option on the animals and may buy them, as it is their intention to greatly enlarge the number of specimens in the zoological department and provide new houses for all the species.
