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©Ije grf^ij Jtaftura 



VOL. III. JANUARY, 1894. No. 1. 



THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JOHNNIE, CHIMPANZEE. 



Late of the Zoological Gardens, Dublin. 



by v. ball, c.b., ll-d., f.r.s. 



In the Report of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland for 

 1889 we find the following passage : — " It is with very great 

 regret that we have to record the death of the Orang-utan 

 " Sindbad," oh the 7th of April last. He had been purchased in 

 August, 1885, and during his three years and eight months of 

 residence in the Gardens was a universal favourite with all 

 visitors, while his engaging character secured for him the 

 affectionate regard of all who were more intimately acquainted 

 with him" — then follows in the same report a more detailed 

 account. 



It was a case, or nearly so, as it always should be in a 

 Zoological Gardens, of " le roi est mort, vive le roi" for in 1890, 

 in the same month as the Orang died the Gardens received a 

 donation of a young Chimpanzee from Mr. Cross, of Liver- 

 pool, with whom many transactions in the way of buying and 

 selling animals have taken place. 



If any reader seeks for a scientific disquisition on the Chim- 

 panzee he is advised to pass over these pages, and refer to 

 some of the regular text-books ; here we intend only to speak 

 of him as we might of a more or less respectable citizen, lately 

 deceased, or as the representative of a race of which, in the 

 orthodox fashion, we propose to describe the manners and 

 customs — it may be at once admitted that he had several of 

 each — more particularly the latter. His moral character was 

 such that we propose to say no more about it than what is at 

 the same time pleasant and instructive— as is sometimes done 

 with great effect in other biographies, on the principle 



" de mortuis ?iil nisi bonum." \ 



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