MATERNAL INSTINCT IN A MONKEY 405 



looked more like a bit of rat skin than the remains of a monkey) 

 out to her and she immediately seized it and rushed with it to 

 the shelf at the top of the cage. 



Two days later the remnant was missing, and careful search 

 failed to discover it in the cage. It is probable that Gertie had 

 carelessly left it lying on the floor whence it was washed out 

 when the cages were cleaned. On this date Gertie seemed 

 quieter than for weeks previously. 



Thus it appears that during a period of five weeks the in- 

 stinct to protect her offspring impelled this monkey to carry its 

 gradually vanishing remains about with her and to watch over 

 them so assiduously that it was utterly impossible to take them 

 from her except by force. 



After reading this note in manuscript, Doctor Hamilton 

 informed me that Gertie had behaved toward her first still- 

 birth as toward her second. And, further, that Grace, a baboon, 

 also carried a still-birth about for weeks. 



I am now heartily glad that my early efforts to remove the 

 corpse were futile, for this record of the persistence of maternal 

 behavior seems to me of very unusual interest to the genetic 

 psychologist. 



