CAREFUL MOTHERS 



like to wear it to-day. The baby felt at home at once, and made him- 

 self busy about the table, putting the castor-sugar into his mouth 

 and coughing it out in all directions, which seemed to amuse him 

 greatly. For a long while I watched the little creature with such 

 feelings as the Brobdignagian ladies may have entertained at their 

 first sight of Gulliver. 



The care of the simian mother for her child has long been a 

 matter of comment ; indeed, in German the fondness of a doting 

 parent is described as Affenliebe, "monkey-love." But we use the 

 term to denote an exaggerated and over-indulgent affection. There 

 is no place for such affection in the relation of the simian mother 

 and child, for, as Brehm has observed, the monkey child follows its 

 mother so instantly and unconditionally that many a human child 

 might profit by its example. But the intensity of the simian mother's 

 self-sacrificing love may be judged from a story which Schomburgh 

 tells of a South American Capucin monkey : 



"I was about to return to my boat, when the anxious voice of 

 a monkey in a tree overhead informed me loudly that his mother 

 had forgotten him in her wild flight. One of my Indians climbed the 

 tree. Scarcely had the monkey seen the unfamiliar figure, when in 

 his terror he emitted a few loud cries, which were instantly answered, 

 from the next tree, by the returning mother. No sooner did the 

 terrified animal hear these tones than he replied at the top of his 

 voice, and was once more answered by the call-notes of the mother. 

 The poor thing was fired upon and wounded; she turned to fly, 

 but returned again instantly when her darling once more uttered 

 his notes of alarm, and with an effort she leapt, disregarding a 

 second shot, which missed her, on to the bough which bore the 

 complaining youngster. She quickly took him on her back, and was 

 about to make off with him when, against my strict orders, a third 

 shot killed her. Even in her death-struggle she held her darling fast, 

 and attempted to escape, but in so doing fell to the ground." 



The Brazilian deer too are careful of their young. In the case 

 of the small red Brocket, the "Veado," which does not assemble in 

 herds, both parents, united in faithful matrimony, protect the calf, 

 hide it in the bushes in case of danger, and show themselves to the 

 enemy, in order to divert his attention to themselves. A pair of 

 Pampas deer once pursued a traveller who had found a calf, and 

 taken it with him, for half an hour. The pugnacious Peccaries are 

 well able to defend their young, and it is said of the female Anta, 

 or Tapir, that she will place her calf between her legs and defend 



267 



