PORTABLE ZOOS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20917, 6 January 1930, Page 12

PORTABLE ZOOS.

WILD LIFE AND WARDROBE. FASHION AS “ HOME-BREAKER.” The philosophical naturalist must be tempted to ask himser from time to tim<* if in the matter of dross we have progressed very much beyond the ideals of prehistoric man. for in spite of the fact that the human masquerade has boon running for innumerable centuries, it is stili chiefly reliant for its make-up upon the lower animals (writes E. G. Bou lenger in the Daily Telegraph). I was forcibly reminded of this the other day when in conversation with a lady who happened to be a rigid vegetarian and n 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 the nucleus of a very promising natural history museum. Babbits aud birds had gone to make and decorate a hat, a turtle and an oyster had contributed towards the ornament of her hair, cars, aud 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 hoots. More oysters had helped to ornament her 'mgers, and an elephant’s tusk accentuated her shapely wrists. In her hand she carried a lizard-skin bag. DOOMED TO EXTINCTION. To-day over 300 different kinds of animals, ranging from coloboa monkeys to duck-billed platypus, are , slaughtered for clothes that Nature intended them to keep. I have before me on 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 firm:— Opossum 360,000, wallaby 330,000, marmot 65,000, musquash 46,000, wild cats 35,000, fox 40,000, flying squirrel 21,000, marten 13,000. gazelle 10,000, beaver 9000, chinchilla 7000, ermine 6000, monkey 2000. Many of these animals are, as a result, on the verge of extinction. The trade has invented a sort of nightmare Zoo which to-day fills the gaps made by creatures that have 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, ..nd 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. Tho rabbit has today taken.the place of the heaver, so that the time-worn conjuror’s trick of getting rabbits out of a hat may bo said to haw. been reversed by tho scientific furrier. It is pleasant to turn to the consideration of silk—a commodity that still holds its own in spite of a host of synthetic substitutes. Its history roads 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 1700 B.C. For about 2000 years tho Chinese kept their secret to themselves, and even when their 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 nation succeeded in producing silk themselves. THE SIMPLE SAVAGE. Although the penalty for exporting silkworm eggs was death, eventually certain monks successfully ran the gauntlet and brought not only the eggs but the food plant, in the form of the seeds of the mulberry tree. Thence onwards the 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 the meaning of -the act.” Even the silken threads of the 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 products have not been made use of in some manner. For centuries one of tire most popular dyes was obtained from the sen snail. To day there is a demand for reptile skins of any and every kind—a fashion that lias ’ been uphold among savages since the dawn of man. Fiji Island shell necklaces had oiico a great vogue in this country, but have lately given place to tho wings of South American and Central African butterflies. Cuttlefish cye-lonses are used for adornment in many parts of the world, whilst in South America there is to-day an ever-increasing demand for fireflies—the iniects being threaded upon wires and worn round tho arms and necks of the native "belles” at all kinds of evening functions. In night-life loving Vera Cruz firefly farming is a regular industry, the insects being caught in vast numbers, 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 we are all very much the same. The only difference Is that from the ultra-civilised point of view we do things perhaps a little more gracefully.