The wonder book of freaks and animals in the Barnum & Bailey greatest show on earth : 1898.

Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wonder book of freaks and animals in the Barnum & Bailey greatest show on earth : 1898. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    THREE WATER-] The Malay tapir is a handsome animal, very rarely seen in Europe. One of the handsomest speci- mens ever brought from the Malayan Islands is that which is now included in the Barnum and Bailey collection. The tapir is a thick-skinned quadruped, very closely related to the elephant on one side and the rhinoceros on the other. In its feeding habits it is quite like the latter. Its relationship to the elephant is shown by its possession of an incipient trunk like a short section of garden hose. There are two species of the tapir found in South America, both of which are much smaller than the Malayan. The Malay tapir is also called the saddle-backed tapir, because every individual of the species has the same peculiar marking of white like a saddle-cloth flung over its back. The tapir is one of the few animals that survive from prehistoric species, and geological remains show that it existed in the miocene ages in exactly the same physical condition as at present. It is probably the only animal with such an ancient pedigree. The capybara can best be described as a gigantic water rat, water rabbit, or water guinea-pig, for in its characteristics it resembles all three of these animals. Like them, it is a rodent—that is, an animal with very ( vIG VEGETARIANS. (Copyrisht, Registered.) sharp front teeth, two in each jaw, for gnawing. It comes from South America. The flesh is said to be very sweet and much like that of young pig, and is a favourite food of the South American tigers. The two fine capybaras in the Barnum and Bailey collection are from the River Plate, and arrived in New York about a year ago. They were very shy at first, and kept hidden under the straw in their cage. Kindness, however, overcame their timidity, and now they will come up to the bars whenever called to have their throats and backs rubbed. The red river hog or bush hog, as it is sometimes called, might well be denominated a nightmare in red. With its long pointed snout, its sharp ears tipped with red tassels, its small body, high ridged back, and brightly coloured bristles, it looks like nothing so much as one of those animals sometimes drawn by artists who like to indulge in dreams of Gazoozaland. There are a very large number of wild hogs found in different parts of the world, but the red river hog or bush hog of West Africa may well lay claim to being the progenitor of his whole race. Like its larger relatives, it affords good sport to the hunter, and despite its uncanny appearance makes very good eating. )