HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSJF. 



85 



THE BONNET-MONKEY AS A PET. 



AS an admirer of animated nature, I have for 

 some years past, kept all sorts of queer animals 

 as pets ; and have derived much amusement and a 

 large amount of instruction by studying their ways, 

 habits, and different degrees of intelligence. Be- 

 ginning some years ago with a brief but very inter- 

 esting study of the more minute and lowly members 

 of the animal world, comprising the sub-kingdom 

 Protozoa, I have endeavoured to gradually work up 

 to the higher order of created beings, as far as my 

 means and circumstances would allow. 



Some of my pets, as the too-familiar slugs and 

 snails, and the frogs, toads, and newts have been 

 shuddered at, and pronounced uncanny and repul- 

 sive, by, I am glad to say, a minority of my acquaint- 



Fig- 73- 



ances, but I have still retained my " queer pets," and 

 have derived a vast amount of pleasure, and have 

 experienced a feehng of satisfaction at the thought, 

 that many an hour has been profitably spent in 

 studying the hfe-history of these much-despised 

 animals, which might have been squandered in idle 

 and evil pursuits. With what real pleasure can the 

 ardent naturalist take his holiday rambles, with the 

 knowledge that every tree, bush, hedge, or boulder, 

 may screen some animal or plant that will be of 

 interest to him ! If a conchologist, or botanist, or 

 entomologist, with what delight he regards the ac- 

 quisition of some new species, or rare variety or 

 monstrosity of form, be it moUusk, or plant, or 

 insect. 



Some twelve months ago I made another addition 



to my list of " queer pets," in the form of a young 

 female Bonnet-monkey (Macaciis siiiicus), from 

 Madras. She was quite a young thing, weighing 

 about three and a quarter pounds, and when 

 first I sav/ her in the dealer's shop was in a most 

 pitiable state, having several large scabs on her 

 poor little head and shoulders, and a portion of her 

 tail, extending from five to six inches from the 

 extreme end, was in a dead and useless condition, 

 the result of burns and scalds. I really believe I 

 purchased her more out of pity than love, for she 

 was in an extremely dirty and deplorable condition. 

 Her eyes, however, were very bright, and with the 

 exception of her wounds, her general health appeared 

 good. Immediately upon her arrival, I gave her a 

 much needed bath, dressed her burns and tail with 

 vaseline, wrapped her in flannel, and gave her cold 

 potatoes which she eagerly demolished. After giving 

 her a few days to settle down, and become reconciled 

 to her new quarters (she fretted, and her face bore 

 an extremely worried look for some weeks), I com- 





"'4 





Fig. 74- 



menced proceedings to shorten her caudal extremity^ 

 which at times caused her much pain by getting 

 entangled in the bars of her cage. So summoning 

 up the necessary courage, I enveloped "Miss Jennie " 

 in a stout shawl, and with the aid of a sharp knife, 

 and a hammer, her tail was soon the shorter by 

 quite five inches. A few weeks ensued, and I found 

 the tail required still further shortening, as one of 

 the vertebrce had been broken by a fall ; this rough 

 surgical operation was soon accomplished, and Jennie 

 was minus another inch of tail. It gradually healed 

 over, but required constant dressing with vaseline, 

 and even now it is apt to swell at the cut end, and 

 break into a sore, but in a day or so it heals again. 

 The wounds on her head soon healed, she now weighs 

 three and three-quarter pounds (having gained eight 

 ounces in weight) and measures twenty-three inches 



