JUNGLE FOR SALE

Trefflich's youngest daughter Marlene once characterized him as a collector of ""everything from an elephant to a mouse""; he himself advertises his ready-and-willingness to procure and sell ""everything from a hamster to an elephant."" Born in a zoo--the Tiergarten, Hamburg, Germany, which his father managed, he came to his love of wild animals early. His own story, of reaching the United States, his first big job which found him stranded in Calcutta, in business with his father, then alone, comes late in the book. Most of it is an anecdotal pastiche of world journey in search of animals, dealings with patrons from zoos and universities to pranksters (a run on skunks for Valentine's Day gifts). There are also tales of creatures on the loose: ninety-nine monkeys in Manhattan, a green mamba (deadly) in a ship hold, an unfettered elephant in a plane... Cornelia Otis Skinner played Romance with a pygmy marmoset on her arm; Jimmy Durante commiserated with a toucan, had his picture taken with one. The ultimate in monkey business: Trefflich unknowingly ate a fertility ragout made from a rhesus he had sold his host. Information on various periods of gestation and a Bible quiz attend. Amiable enough, that's about it.