404 ROBERT M. YERKES 



Scotty sat close beside her watching intently. When disturbed 

 by me the mother carried her infant to a shelf at the top of 

 the cage. Repeatedly attempts were made to remove the dead 

 baby, but they were futile because Gertie either held it in her 

 hands or sat close beside it ready to seize it at the slightest 

 disturbance. 



Especially noteworthy on this, the second day after the birth 

 of the infant, are the male's, as well as the female's, keen inter- 

 est in the body and their frequent examinations of the eyes, as 

 if in attempts to open them. Often, also, the mother searched 

 the body for fleas. 



Observations were made from day to day, and each day 

 opportunity was sought to remove the body without seriously 

 frightening or exciting the female. No such opportunity came, 

 and during the second week the corpse so far decomposed that, 

 with constant handling and licking by the adults, it rapidly 

 wore away. By the third week there remained only the shriv- 

 eled skin covering a few fragments of bone, and the open skull 

 from the cavity of which the brain had been removed. This 

 the mother never lost sight of: even when eating she either held 

 it in one hand or foot, or laid it beside her within easy reach. 



Gradually this remnant became still further reduced until 

 on March 31 there existed only a strip of dry skin about four 

 inches long with a tail-like appendage of nearly the same length. 



'The male, Scotty, on this date was removed to another cage. 

 Gertie made a great fuss, jumping about excitedly and uttering 

 plaintive cries when she discovered that her mate was gone. 

 Whenever I approached her cage she scurried into the shelter 

 box and stayed there while I was near. This behavior I never 

 before had observed. It continued for two days. On April 2, 

 it was noted that she had lost her recently acquired shyness 

 and she no longer made any attempts to avoid me. As usual, 

 on this date, she was carrying the remnant about with her. 



The following day, April 3, Gertie was lured from her cage to 

 a large adjoining compartment for certain experimental obser- 

 vations. After she had been returned to her own cage the 

 remnant was noticed on the floor of the large cage. I picked it 

 up. Gertie evidently noticed my act, for although at a distance 

 of at least ten feet from me, she made a sharp outcry and sprang, 

 to the side of the cage nearest me. I held the piece of skin (it 



