A ZOO AT SEA

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8680, 13 March 1914, Page 6

A ZOO AT SEA

NIAGARA’S QUEER CARGO. “That’s tihe last present I got, and that’s the gentleman who gave it, said a tall, pOwerfolly-huilt man on the boat deck of the Niagara at Auckland on Wednesday morning, as he indicated a. mutilated finger, and then pointed to a caged animal that looked as though, it should be a pig, but had somehow acquired the beautiful coat of a short-haired collie dog. The speaker was Mir Ellis 'S. Joseph,. who was once in charge of the railway yard at Auckland, hut has for some years followed the exciting occupation of trapping, buying, selling or exchanging wild animals and birds. Housed between the mail-boat’s two red funnels (says, the “Star”), this interesting ex-Aucklander has a remarkable assortment of birds and beasts, which he is taking over to Australia. Bulking largest are two magnificent bull bisons, an animal which is getting as rare as the dodo, and next in size come two fine elk, the latter pair being for the Zoo at Sydney. Some other inhabitants of this floating zoo are sixteen bears —black, brown, and cinnamon—ranging in size from a big black beauty weighing several hundredweight to a comic little cub called Bar mi m, which is allowed a certain amount of liberty. He is chained to a stay, and everyone who passes him gives him a pat on the head, an attention which he evidently appreciates. He and a big cinnamon, are the pets of the consignment. Barmina could not make it out when lie began to lose hia glossy coat when be struck the hot weather in the tropics, and ho is now somewhat in need of a hair restorer. Among the other passengers in Mr Joseph’s collection are two deer, eight peccary (Mexican wild boar), five coyotes (prairie wolves), four American bald-headed eagles . (the national emblem of the States), three beavers (the national emblem of Canada), two porcupines, a “bunch” of snakes, several, kinds of pert little squirrels, seven sleek-ooated racoons, three Ijinx, one unsociable leopard oat. and four badgers. Among the birds are several kinds of pheasants (including the rare Lady Amherst variety, the exquisitely marked peacock pheasant), a lot of noisy geese (including the Canadian “honker.” whose call has been so successfully imitated by the motor-car), some snow-birds, sparrows, the pretty blue jay, cackling geese, and the African knobbed goose (a queer-looking fellow who comes from China, has been domesticated in America, and has never seen Africa in spite of its name). Few, if any, of the birds have been seen in Auckland before, and most of the animals are near, so that the strange collection was the source of much interest to visitors who went aboard. The animals and birds are all native of either the States or Canada, and the collection too over four months to get togetb'—