Science: Zoo Vandals

At the Bronx Zoo, New York, vandals last week committed wanton depredations upon the caged beasts there. They shot the only Arabian Dorcas gazelle in captivity, a frail and beautiful animal. They threw stones at the only shoebill heron in the U. S. until they smashed its bill so badly that it could not eat and could scarcely breathe. They threw more stones at the sea lion until they blinded one of its eyes. Weirdest of the crimes was the dark attempt of a man to pull a cobra from its glass case by means of a cane and to carry it away in a violin case. Guards saw him; he ran booty-less.

The shoebill heron injured at the Bronx Zoo is one of the most singular of all creatures. Five feet tall, grey, gaunt, spindly-legged, it lives naturally in the White Nile marshes. Its head is extraordinarily large, topped by a little curled tuft. The eyes scowl, when seen from the front, stare brightly in side aspect. Queerest is its great bill, which clacks-clacks hollowly when the bird gapes or preens itself. That bill closely resembles a shoe (whence the popular name “shoe-bill”) or the head of a whale (hence the scientific name Balaeniceps rex).