PORTABLE ZOOS

Evening Star, Issue 20375, 6 January 1930, Page 2

PORTABLE ZOOS

WILD LIFE AHD WARDROBE " ■ ' '• -I FASHIfiN AS M HOME BREAKER ” The philosophical naturalist must he tempted to ask himself from time to time if in the matter of dress we have progressed very much beyond tho ideals of prehistoric man,’for in spite of the_ fact that the human masquerade has been running for innumerable centuries, it is still chiefly reliant for its make-up upon the lower animals (writes E. G. Boulenger in the ‘Daily Telegraph’). I was forcibly reminded of this the other, day when in conversation with & lady who happened to bo a rigid vegetarian- and a fierce opponent of the exploitation of animals for any purpose , ■ The Zoo, of course, was on her black list Yet in her. own person she must have been .responsible for. many broken homes, for she was carrying about tho nucleus of a very promising 'natural history museum. Rabbits ‘and birds had gone to make and decorate a hat, a .turtle and an oyster had contributed towards the adornment of her hair, ears, and neck. A cat, a bear, and several other, animals garnished her principal outer garments, whilst a calf, ’ a kid, and a snake all met violent ends in providing her with gloves and boots. More oysters had helped to ornament ‘ her fingers, and an elephant’s tusk accentuated her shapely wrists. In her hand she carried a lizard-skin bag. - DOOMED TO EXTINCTION. To-day over SOO different kinds of animals, ranging from colobos monkeys to . duck-billed platypus, are slaughtered for clothes that Nature intended them to keep. I have before me an extract of the official figures of the London Fur Market, published by the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire. In the past year the following skins were put up for sale by a single firmi-rr

Many of these animals are, as a result, on the verge of extinction. The trade, hap invented a sort of nightmare Zoo which to-day fills the gaps made by creatures that nave given up a losing fight against gun, trap, and poison. In the tradesmen’s catalogue, but nowhere else, one meets such monsters as the electric monkey, tiger giraffe, and flashy zebra. At one period the beaver was a .standard of value, all other furs being judged by it. Beaver fur . was used in the make-up of hats. The rabbit has to-day taken the place of the beaver, so that the time-worn conjuror’s trick of getting rabbits out of a hat may be said to have been reversed by the scientific furrier. It is pleasant to turn to the consideration of silk—a commodity that still holds its own in spite of a host df ■ synthetic substitutes. Its history reads like a page from the * Arabian Nights.’ The original discoverer was the wife of the third Emperor of China, who for her enterprise was deified in about 1.700 U.c. For about 2,000 years the Chinese kept their secret to themselves, and even when thair products were carried westward by the wandering Persians the true nature of the wonderful garments defied explanation for many centuries. Aristotle divined the source of supply, but it was long after his death that any Western national succeeded in producing silk themselves. THE SIMPLE SALVAGE. Although the penalty for exporting silkworm eggs was death, eventually certain monks successfully ran tho gauntlet and brought not only the eggs but the food plant, in the form of the seeds of the mulberry £ree. From

thence onwards tho industry rapidly spread over Greece and Syria, and so into France, Spain, and Italy. The silk worm is no monopolist, as most, caterpillars can produce silk “ within themcaning of tho Act.” Even the silken threads of tho spider’s web and those of certain mussels have been turned to account, though scarcely on profitable lines. In the realms of adornment pure and simple few animal produces have not been made use of in some manner. For centuries one of tho most popular dvcs was obtained from the sea snail. Today there is a demand for reptile skins of any and every kind—a fashion that has been upheld among savages since the dawn of man. Fiji Island shell necklaces had once a great vogue m this country, but have lately given place to the wings of South American and Central African butterflies. Cuttlefish eye lenses are used for adornment in many parts of the world, whilst in South America there is today an over-increasing demand for fireflies—the insects being threaded upon wires and worn round the arms and necks of the_ native “belles” at all kinds of evening functions. In nightlife loving Vera Cruz fire-fly fanning is a regular industry, the insects being caught in vast being lured by means of small braziers into nets. They are used not only to adorn the local beauties, but are also employed in festooning, garden paths and arbours We may smile at the savage who smears himself with cochineal, thrusts porcupine quills through his nose, or distends his lips with oyster shells, but at heart wo are all very much the same. The only difference is that from tho ultra-civiiised point of view wo do things perhaps a little more gracefully.

Opossum Wallaby 360,000 Marten 13,000 330,000 Gazelle 10,000 Marmot 65,000 Beaver ... 9,000 Musquash 46,000 Chinchilla 7,000 .Wild cats 35,000 Emins ... 6,000 Fox ... 40,000 Monkey 2,000 Flying 21,000 squirrel