594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for Dr. Brehm's observation applies strictly and literally to every 

 species of quadrumana ; the mother-monkey robs her own child, and 

 forces it to eat its food by stealth. The proprietor of the " Zoolog- 

 ical Coffee-Garden," in Savannah, Georgia, has been very successful in 

 rearing young monkeys, and the visitors of his happy-family depart- 

 ment can witness the same scene thrice a day a number of half-grown 

 capuchin babies fleeing from the wrath of their own parents. As soon 

 as the dinner-bucket is brought in, the youngsters hide in the corner 

 and w T atch their opportunity, for while their seniors are feeding there 

 is no hope of a crumb or a drop of milk ; but sooner or later the old 

 ones are sure to fall out, and during a general scrimmage for a tidbit 

 the children sometimes get a chance at the bucket, and take care to 

 make the best of it. But woe unto them if their progenitors catch 

 them in flagranti! Sires, mothers, and aunts combine to avenge the 

 sacrilege, and the noise of the punishment often sets the whole men- 

 agerie agog. I have seen a she-macaque jamming her bantling up 

 against the wall and extracting from its cheek-pouches the gifts of a 

 charitable visitor, together with all the crumbs and scraps the little 

 one had gleaned from the floor, and then adding outrage to injury by 

 cuffing the victim's ears. 



The English word stalwart is derived from stael-wortJi i. e., worth 

 stealing and the same criterion seems to be a monkey's standard for 

 the value of earthly things in general. Any novel, movable, and 

 portable object at once excites his interest. If the digestible quali- 

 ties of the novelty seem doubtful, he appeai-s to act on the principle 

 that in the mean while it can do no harm to appropriate it. North of 

 the Rio Grande most capuchin-monkeys are martyrs to rheumatism, and 

 three poor cripples of the Cebidse species had been assigned winter- 

 quarters in the kitchen of a New Orleans boarding-house. They could 

 be trusted, as their complex ailments disqualified them from running 

 and climbing, their only mode of progression being a sidelong wrig- 

 gling on their haunches and elbows. But one day the landlady heard 

 a frightful caterwauling, and, entering the kitchen in haste, was sur- 

 prised to see one of her patients on top of the chimney-ladder, while 

 another was rolling about in a fit of fantastic contortions. The cook 

 had left on the floor a bucketful of Pontchartrain crabs, and during 

 her momentary absence the monkeys had fallen victims to the cause 

 of free inquiry. Somehow or other the cook's manoeuvres had drawn 

 their attention to the bucket, and, having managed to upset it, their 

 ring-tails had got entangled with the not less prehensile crustaceans. 



The tardo (black sloth) has a peculiar talent for making himself 

 invisible. Even a medium-sized tree, without an excessive supplement 

 of tangle-vines, has to be inspected thoroughly and from different 

 points of view before a slight movement in the upper branches attracts 

 your attention to a fluffy-looking clump, not easy to distinguish from 



