SUMMARY:
Clippings report on women’s achievements and fashions and profile Miss Joan Proctor, Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens. They describe her creating a heated nursery in the Reptile House for baby crocodiles and alligators from the West Coast of Africa.
CONTENT:
JANUARY 1. 1924.
Evening News.
Cutting from the Evening News
Publication
20.2.24
WOMEN LAST YEAR—AND THIS.
Consolidation the Keynote. No New Stars. Some Notable Feats.
dated 24.2.24
ZOO BABIES.
A keeper at the Zoo with the baby crocodiles which have just arrived from the West Coast of Africa. Miss Proctor, the curator of the reptiles, is making a special nursery for them.
A Young Expert.
Another case in which a woman has been given an entirely new appointment is that of Miss Joan Proctor, F.Z.S., F.L.S., who, at 25, is Curator of Reptiles at the Zoo, and, although unknown to the world at large, is famous among zoologists as one of the greatest experts on reptiles.
In 1929 the first woman—Mrs. Annie Swynnerton—was elected to the Royal Academy, since the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
In legal matters the right of a woman to divorce her husband for unfaithfulness without cruelty is one of the most important things that has happened to women since the passing of the Married Women's Property Act.
The Fashion World.
In the world of dress the most conspicuous of the successful fashions is the low heel for shoes and the maintenance of that silhouette which needs a "natural" or no corset.
The Women's Golf Union have decided to have a club of their own colours. So, probably, that will mean fewer woollen jumpers and more shirt blouses among golfing fashions of 1924. Miss Cecil Leitch has always been faithful to the shirt-blouse mode.
Literature and the Stage.
In the social sense the opening of so many men's clubs to women has marked an advance in the so-much-valued "equality." In literature no new stars have arisen on the firmament of women: at least, if they have risen we have not yet noticed them. Out of the thousands of books published during 1923 there has been no novel by a new author that is indubitably epoch-making.
"NURSERY for Baby Crocodiles," says a headline. A lover of children says he's going to write to the N.S.P.C.C. about it.
NURSERY FOR BABY
CROCODILES
—AND A WOMAN AS "NURSE"
AT THE ZOO.
THREE MEALS A WEEK.
Miss Joan Proctor, Curator of Reptiles at the Zoological Gardens, is very busy just now making a nursery for baby crocodiles.
Six of these have just arrived from the West Coast of Africa, and as they are only eighteen months old and very small and tender they need a lot of care.
Miss Proctor's nursery will consist of a special tank with rockwork and other decorations dear to the heart of the juvenile crocodile. To compensate the new arrivals for the loss of the African sunshine, and to make them feel as much at home as possible, a radiator is being buried in the sand under the bottom of the tank, and by this means the temperature of the water will be kept at 85 degrees.
Young crocodiles like to be kept warm.
LEISURELY GROWERS.
The tank will be fixed in the Reptile House and is to be officially known as "The Nursery."
When first hatched these baby crocodiles were only six inches long, but if they keep fit and well, and make normal progress, they may reach a length of thirty feet in time, though no one now living is likely to be here to see them then.
These crocodiles, which are similar to those found in the Nile, live to a tremendous age, and go on growing for years and years.
The biggest crocodile now in the reptile house is getting on for 10. He is about 14 feet in length, and still has a long way to go. The older he gets, the less often does he feed. At present he only has a meal once a fortnight. It generally consists of a pound of meat.
NO HUSTLING FOR THEM!
Young crocodiles, however, need feeding two or three times a week, and the lusty youngsters who have just arrived at the Zoo are doing very well on a diet of chopped meat and small fish. All being well, they will grow quickly at first, and two years will make an appreciable difference to their size.
But when they are about 6 feet long they will slow down and begin to take life easily. From then onwards their rate of growth will be about an inch a year!
That is the way of crocodiles. You cannot "hustle" them.
BABY ALLIGATORS
Two of the six baby alligators which have arrived at the Zoo and are in a special nursery designed by Miss Joan Proctor.
ILLUSTRATED SUNDAY HERALD, FEBRUARY 24, 1924.
