Catching Them

South American jungles contain no professional animal catchers. Zoomen have to send hunters there specially or buy up specimens caught casually. Last week in Manhattan, Alexander Siemel, professional tiger hunter (TIME, April 21), and Capt. Vladimir Perfilieff, artist-explorer (TIME, Dec. 30), revealed some of their plans for an expedition which will start shortly for Matto Grosso, high and wild Brazilian hinterland, to catch animals, sell them to U. S. zoos. David Newell, U. S. puma hunter, naturalist and author,* is going with them; also John Clarke and Francis Spaulding, Manhattan sportsmen.

Hunter Siemel, the man who kills jaguars with a bayonet, has devised a new method for capturing the giant anaconda boa constrictor. These monsters live in swamp pools which the natives skim and will not talk about except to mutter, "sucuri," their name for the anaconda. In the cold, dry season, anacondas sometimes slip out of pools to bask in the sun. Hunter Siemel's plan is to get between his snake and the water, put it on the defensive. Other men will surround it on the land side. Each man will be equipped with a long pole with a rawhide loop at the end, like a dog-catcher's dog- catcher. When the snake finds itself cornered, it will make for the water. The captors will slip their loops over the beast's head and tail, work them toward the middle to make room for more loops. Hunter Siemel is confident that six men with six loops can easily master the biggest of anacondas (30 ft.).

Besides catching animals, Perfilieff, Siemel & Newell propose to broadcast the jungle's noises, by day and night, to civilization. U. S. citizens who hear these programs may later see some of the animal performers, not only in cinema but in the flesh. For interested observers of the expedition's success are the planners of the Chicago Fair. Under the presidency of John Tinney McCutcheon, big-game-hunting cartoonist, "the most complete zoo in the country" is being assembled. Hunter Siemel & friends will have a ready market in Chicago for all the jaguars, tapirs, giant armadillos, anteaters, puma, ocelots, coati, large red wolves that they can catch. Modeled on the German Hagenbeck plan, the Chicago zoo will have few bars. Animals will be kept as nearly as possible in a natural environment, restrained by canals, walls, small hills, of dimensions nicely calculated beyond the captives' leaping and climbing abilities.

Largest private U. S. zoo, which may also get some of the expedition's catch, is that of George Getz in Holland, Mich. This collection, started in 1916, was opened four years ago to the public. Last year over a million people went to see the Getz animals. William Randolph Hearst has a large private zoo on his ranch in California. Charles Livingston Bull, famed animal artist, used to keep a collection of live wild beasts at his home in Oradell, N. J., for models.

War Locust?

In Clarksdale, Miss., last week, a fireman found a locust with a yellow W on its back. Old settlers said it meant war in seven years, told of similar locusts appearing before the last war, the Spanish American War, the Civil War, the Mexi- can War.

Trout Diet

Most trout fishermen would rather catch plenty of fish than only a few, but few real trout fishermen prefer the dull-colored, hatchery-raised trout of stocked ponds and streams to the bright-gleaming, pink-speckled "natives" of wild water. Last week, Dr. H. S. Davis, director of the Bureau of Fisheries' experimental sta- tion at Pittsford, Vt., announced that he had raised brightly colored trout by mixing dried salmon eggs with their diet.

Difference in coloration between wild and cultivated fish is caused almost entirely by difference in food. Wild trout eat insects, minnows. Hatchery trout are fed liver and beef heart. Upon release they slowly assume their natural brightness as they get their natural diet. Present tendency is to keep fish at the hatcheries until they are legal size for catching. In addition to providing a better looking catch for anglers, the new diet mixture of meat and salmon eggs will reduce the cost of trout. Salmon eggs can be obtained cheaply in large quantities from salmon canneries.

* American Animals, P. F. Volland; Cougars & Cowboys, Century.

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