A NATURALIST'S CHARGES.

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 94, 22 April 1933, Page 17

A NATURALIST'S CHARGES.

"Thrills of a Naturalist's Quest," by Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars, Curator of Mammals and Reptiles at tho Now York Zoological Park, is full of anecdotes,and adventures concerning, a multitude of animals. A Noah's Ark procession parade 3 through Dr. Ditmars's pages. He clearly understands und loves his strange charges, and makes their stories thoroughly absorbing. Dr. Ditmars has much that is interesting to say about some of the rarities that have lived under his care. Take tho aard-vark, for instance, which, might bo a relation of Lewis Carroll's slithy tove:—"lt lookslike a cross between a pig and a- gigantic Tabbit, weighs close to a hundred pounds, digs with a strength to make tho dirt fly, but eats so little at a time that its diet of chopped meat, milk, and pggs has to' lii> supplied ' absolutely fresh and at intervals like doses of medicine." One of tho world's rarest creatures is tho tarsiei-j which has a rat-liko body, long, lanky legs, enormous eyes, and a tail that is,hairless except at the tip. It comes from Malaya, and we arc told that "so far as known, no tarsier has ever been exhibited in any zoo of Europe or America* and tho only observation of a captive comes from tho French naturalist, Cuillcmard, who received a living specimen while in the Celebes. He said that it slept all day, but spent its time at night jumping up and down in its cage, which antics terminated in its falling into a picklo jar supplied to furnish its water and in which it died owing to inabilty to jump out again." Tho many excellent stories and illustrations that abound in this volume mak'c it one well worth acquiring.