Show ZOO HAS A STRANGE PET Solenodon Captured In San Domingo and Ancestor of the Rat Family Now In Washington Washington now has a golenodon in i Its zoo It is ono of tho few In captivity cap-tivity anywhere In tho world and was a gift of Mr and Mrs Franklin Adams of the Bureau of American Republics who brought back five specimens from tho mountains of Santo Domingo They aro so rare that tho officials of ho zoo do not know exactly what they llvo on but they can havo anything they want from peanuts to Ico Dram oven if there has to bo an urgent deficiency defi-ciency bill presented to congress tIT pay for it Tho llttlo beast Is ji closer approach i In general appearance to some of tho extinct animals of bygone ages than i it is to any present day mammals It Is n member of tho hedgehog family and a first cousin to a shrew So far as Is known there is none of the Santo Domlngan variety In captivity anywhere else Thero Is none even In tho Regents Park zoo In London and tho nearest approach to it is a closely allied animal from Madagascar In tho Jardln des Plantcs in Earls The out ofdate mammal Is about the size of a rabbit has a long nose llko a little ant cater and heavy claws on the t This Is the Solendon front feet for digging Thoso that have boon brought back by Mr Adams have been ted on hard bolled eggs and similar sim-ilar delicacies But It It wants ants or grubs tho biological survey will be called Into consultation and it will bo seen whether tho particular brand of Insects It affects cannot bo raised in this latitude Mr Adams Is editor of the Bulletin of tho International Bureau of American Ameri-can Republics His wife Mrs Harriet Har-riet Chalmers Adams is a lecturer of note on South America Panama and tho West Indies Sho la of scientific attainments and in a horseback journey jour-ney of 15 days through tho wilds of Santo Domingo sho was of great assistance as-sistance to her husband In his quest for specimens of tho solenodon which Is known to tho Santo Domlngans as almllpul Whllo It was known that solenodon was to bo found in Santo Domlngo said Mrs Adams tho only specimen obtained in the 50 years was that caught by A Hyatt Verrill tho naturalist natural-ist many years ago The animal died before Mr Verrill was able to photograph I photo-graph it but he sketched it later When we wore touring Santo Domingo we resolved to invade the haunts of tho ancestor of tho rodent family and after aft-er 15 days of hard riding through tho wildest country in tho world wo succeeded suc-ceeded in obtaining five excellent specimens spe-cimens |