| Show V f n gilr I 1 arfst AP LOOK F on BABY miss murphy pride of the new york zoo Is soon to gladden the hearts of her keepers for the seventh time means much financially ai the region over the long narrow buildings of the central park menagerie a mighty stork Is hovering picking a soft spot on which to deposit his burden a ponderous homely in te resting amiable baby a young hippo pota mus says the new york press As yet you cannot discern the busy bringer of babies even on a clear day but menagerie director smith says that by the time ua tae naked branches of the parks park s gray trees and bushes appear in full garb of early summer green a forty pound pink little pig will appear in the limelight of the pretty setting and become t the e star attraction of the city s zoo director smith ought to know he ile got his information from three and a halt half ton caliph whose mouth Is too big to hold a secret and who got the news direct from his faithful two and a half ton spouse miss murphy but while the prospective domestic joys of the caliph murphy baby fam lly fly are interesting there remains an other phase infinitely more important to persons who study wild animals and those concerned in the successful building up of the zoo every animal in the central park menagerie has been presented to the city directly or indirectly by caliph and miss murphy never before or since in the history of zoology have hippos been known to breed in captivity next to a giraffe an i a two horned raf rhinoceros hippo taral are the most expensive luxuries in which a menagerie can invest A full grown hippopotamus Is valued at 1 and a baby at least at halt half that amount six times have the ponder ous hearts of the big couple been glad bened by the antics of a pink one the first two youngsters died to raise a young hippo was too much of a lem even for experienced animal men it was necessary to experiment so as to learn how to handle the tots properly but once the problem was solved it was easy to trade young hip pos with hagenbeck and other ani ant mal men to prepare for the advent of a young hippo was one of the things that the animal men when miss mur phy first decided to show she was opposed to race suicide not in animal literature was to be found information which might throw light on how to MON WU SAYS BABIES S ABE 1 jj me aaa tm TH 5 FEATHER proceed in a wild state tho the pink youngsters enter the world while un der cler water where likewise they nurse until weaned at tho the end of about a year in the central park zoo the hippos are kept in a huge tank five feet deep there the first baby was born it was a lusty youngster with a pink head and a pink belly and sides and a slate state colored streak running down the back like most wild animals born in captin ity it was tame from the day of its appearance it came readily out of the tank when called to have a closer view of the great thing man alan A hideously homely little brute it was fourteen inches high with a body like a young pig s a mouth as big as all outdoors and tiny ears which flitch con scantly were wriggling the baby was homely enough to become the pet of everyone that saw it only miss mur phy thought the newcomer pretty in her own awkward fashion she ca the young one ones nosing tt it and even standing over it to make sure that no harm should befall the huge beast ordinarily peaceful became even vicious in her solicitude for her baby and only keeper billy snyder could go near her then came the fatal mistake the experts did not know that a hippo pota mus takes its young one into deep water to nurse it it long spells there were when the baby disappeared un AV M tausa afu dr der the surface in the tank only when too late it was realized that all this time the homely old mother was performing her maternal duties all feared the baby could not thrive with out proper nursing There therefore forg mother and baby ei e sep irate I 1 an I 1 the lit tie one was put on i bottle it hied ten days after that NOB non her homo home v little ladyship stands properly propel prop etly ly in a nook noot in the museum of natura I 1 history with the first attempt at raising a nippo recorded as a dire failure it was feared the experiments would result in defeat fatima the female hippo which afterward became famous in natural history as the first hippo to be born and raised in captivity was thai the second arrival the stork dropped fatima unexpectedly one night it was the only time when caliph man aged to keep a secret and the first in ti matlon the keepers had bad of such an event was when they saw the plump youngster rising gravely out of water and looking surprised out of his little brown eyes little brother who waa W s next in jine line was crushed to death accidentally ci even before he be could be named but he was the last of the baby hippos the zoo lotos youngest child of caliph and his wife Is now in the menagerie a i 3 cr ne TW bulky awkward intelligent young beast that likes to be petted by her keeper and shows surprising knowl knowli I edge for a brute so stupid looking lo 10 tos Is 2 years old and weighs a ton from her parents she has learned the trick of standing at the bars of her cage awaiting with open mouth the coming of anything that la Is good 1 hen heft wide open it would be possible to put a water bucket into the maw ordinarily a hippopotamus Is not a vicious animal but there are times when they become dangerous miss bliss murphy at present Is not in an over ver amiable mood and her temper Is communicated ted to her husband who Is in the cage with her when aroused the method of attack Is wholly with the tho head and the wonder ul laws jaws the animal Is provided with two separate tot 1 sets of teeth those used for the mas ti catlon cation of food are down near the throat the other set consists of five tusks in each of the upper and lower jaws and these are the beasts weapons of offense |
