The Mind of a Monkey 253 



In another set of experiments Lizzie was given a 

 vaseline bottle containing a peanut and closed with 

 a cork. In accordance with her instinct to bite at 

 new objects Lizzie attacked the cork with her teeth, 

 pulled it out and tried to chew it, holding the bottle 

 meanwhile in one hand; then she noticed the nut 

 when she transferred the cork to her feet, and tried 

 to reach the nut, but the neck of the bottle was too 

 small for her hand to enter. On turning the bottle 

 over the nut dropped out unobserved and I replaced 

 it and put in the cork. Lizzie immediately drew 

 the cork and held it in her hind feet while she tried 

 to reach the nut with her fingers. Finally, when she 

 was holding the bottle upside down, the nut came 

 within reach of her fingers and she got it out. When 

 given another nut in a corked bottle she pulled the 

 cork and tried to reach the nut with the bottle up- 

 right, but in the course of her efforts she turned 

 the bottle over so that the nut fell down within reach, 

 when she got it. 



Without describing in detail her subsequent trials, 

 I may say that Lizzie gradually came in the course 

 of fifteen trials to turn up the bottle very soon after 

 she received it and to get the nut much more quickly 

 than at first. She never came to turn the bottle over 

 and let the nut drop out. She was too busy trying 

 to reach it with her fingers to get it by the easiest 

 method. Even after she had come to get the nut 

 rather quickly she often spent considerable time in 

 attempting to reach the nut when the bottle was held 



