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[[Newspaper article]]
[[image-middle aged couple viewing caged birds]]
NEW YORK.-NEXT STOP, WASHINGTON ZOO-Shown with several Brazilian "curasow" birds brought from South America are Dr. William M. Mann, director of the Washington Zoo, and Mrs. Mann. Their boat, the S. S. Brazil, landed here today with 240 birds and animals aboard.
                     -A. P. Wirephoto.
240 Argentine Animals Docked In New York by Dr. Mann
Zoo Expedition Ends Trip With Only One Large Loss, That of 100-Pound Rodent
By W. H. SHIPPEN Jr.,
Star Staff Correspondent.
S. S. BRAZIL AT NEW YORK, June 26.-We arrived here today with one of the finest small collections ever brought out of the Argentine.
Some 240 birds and animals, many of them rare in the United States, came through the 6,000-mile journey with a casualty list small enough to surprise and delight Dr. William M. Mann, director of the National Zoological Park at Washington.
At Buenos Aires, Santos and Rio, it seemed that the numbers and varying necessities of the animals might provide more work than our little party of four could get around to. After we got the task organized, however, we were able to see to it that every bird and beast had the proper care.
"After all," Dr. Mann said, "the wild things didn't volunteer to come along with us. The least we can do is to make them comfortable and provide plenty to eat and drink."
The only large loss on the ocean trip was a hugh capybura, some 100 pounds of the world's biggest rodent.
One day he was eating and drinking and the next, for no apparent reason, he was dead. We buried him at sea, down along the Equator, and provided extra rations for his mate by way of consolation.
The collection was increased at about the same time by the birth of a pair of patagonian cavies. They were running over the deck within an hour of their arrival. 
One baby, however, got caught in the middle of a domestic quarrel between its mother and father- with fatal results. The other is doing nicely.
The ocean trip was too much for a pair of black-necked swans, although half a dozen others survived, along with Andean wild ducks, king vultures, a pair of condors and a crate of oven birds, colorful thrushes and Argentine quail. Also doing well as the boat pulled into New York this morning were the guanacos and llamas and a pair of southern tapirs.
There are about 60 crates in all, while we went south with about a third that many- gifts for the zoos in Buenos Aires, La Plate and Cordoba, Argentina. The Argentines reciprocated so generously that we had almost too many charges on the way home.
After traveling more than 12,000 miles with animals, from buffalos to snakes and wild cats, the only accident which befell me occurred yesterday, at the end of the voyage.
A duck bit me- a little duck no bigger than a bantam hen.
The collection on board is twice as large as anybody expected at the outset of the trip, including Dr. Mann. Perhaps I should say more than twice as large.
Just before we crossed the Equator, a seaman came running to announce that a rabbit had escaped and was cavorting on deck.
"But we have no rabbits," said Dr. Mann. "Just what did this animal look like?" [[next column]]
"A rabbit, sir," replied the seaman.
It seems that the Patagonian cavy was then giving birth to a baby small enough to crawl out through the wire and strong enough to run about at the age of one hour. No sooner was this fugitive restored to its proper place than the other baby arrived. One cavy was born in the Southern Hemisphere and another in the Northern.
Some seamen have contended they could actually smell the animals when they sat down to eat in the galley forward.
And some passengers, no doubt, have heard several of the specimens at night- especially the horned screamers and the nutrias, which cry like babies when they fight.
The collection includes two llamas, two guanacos, two tapirs, two viseachas, five Patagonian cavies, 10 nutrias, one eyra or tiny wildcat from the Matto Grasso, one pygmy opossum, two hurones, three wild dogs from the pampas and two Argentine wildcats.
Assortment of Birds.
Among the birds are a whole flock of flamingoes, 10 horned screamers with spurs on their wing joints, six ostriches, an Argentine stork, two plovers, two black storks, eight curassows, 20 oven birds, the noisy little songsters which build apartmentlike nests of clay; 15 thrushlike birds from Central Argentina, several black-necked swans, five Cascaroba geese, two Andean geese, one serima, a dozen martinets and a dozen tinamou, the quaillike game birds of the Argentine; 5 hawks, 2 king vultures, 2 andean condors and 10 wild ducks of various types.
The reptiles include a box of assorted species from the butantan Snake Farm at Sao Paulo, Brazil; a broad-nosed alligator from Southern Argentina and a collection of frogs, turtles and toads.
As a whole the group gives a pretty fair picture of the fauna of Argentina, with several remote sections of Brazil thrown i for good measure.
I haven't learned to identify all[[next column]] the specimens by name, although I've come to know them quite intimately- what with watering, feeding, cleaning, etc.
Some passengers have been surprised, and somewhat annoyed, at my ignorance. They usually would came to inspect the animals just after breakfast and before time to take their morning swim or sun bath- the hour when all four keepers were busiest and the deck was pretty mess with pans, pots and kettles and every type of food known to man or beast.
"Young man," once said a dowager (who had no business on a work deck, and who held a scented handkerchief over her nose to counteract any odor that might emanate from the crates stacked all around her), "what is the name of that poor, starved creature in that soiled box?"
"Madam," I replied, trying hard- so hard- not to slop muddy water over her immaculate sport shoes, "no compre Englis, no tingo, no speako! Besides, you must excuse me, as I have to open a box of cobras."
Questions, however, never seemed to annoy Dr. Mann, no matter how busy he happened to be. He gave lectures on zoology to some 300 members of the crew and at least half that many passengers.
Perhaps every man is happier about a question to which he has the answer. When they came too fast for me I could always shrug and say:
"Sorry- I only work here!"
[[/Newspaper article]]