526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



often so overcome by its paroxysm that it can neither defend itself nor 

 attack. Another sign of anger is given by shaking violently with the 

 four hands the bars of the cage, the grating, or some support. This 

 habit, born of the forest, is evidently intended to frighten enemies 

 with noise. Molly never failed to exercise it when, after having been 

 teased by any one, he heard him laugh. The cage was fastened to the 

 table, and both were fastened to the wall. As long as the cage was 

 loose, Molly would shake it. As soon as it was fixed, he tried to shake 

 it, and, failing, did not do so again till time and use having worn upon 

 the nails, the cage gained a little play, when he seized his opportunity 

 and the racket was renewed. I then jDut in a piece of India-rubber to 

 muffle the sound, and the monkey stopped his shaking. He did not 

 care to see the cage move, but to make a noise. This habit is, how- 

 ever, not always a sign of anger. Some monkeys practice it under the 

 influence of en7iui or impatience, or when they wish to attract atten- 

 tion, and, in the lack of any other resource, the rhesus would hunt up 

 in his straw a dry bread-crust, a nut-shell, a bone, or anything hard 

 that he could strike against his cage-bars. 



To express a desire, my monkey utters a prolonged " Oh ! " or 

 sounds the interjection in two syllables, with the second a fifth higher 

 than the first. The tone rises according to the intensity of the desire. 

 Thus, when I was talking with another person of the favorite eatables 

 of the rhesus (such as milk, apples, potatoes, and rice), the monkey, 

 although I was not speaking to him, underlined those well-known 

 words with chuckles of approbation, and pushed his oK's through his 

 lips, which were puckered out as if he were whistling. His attitude 

 was the same when I gave the order from my room to have his meal 

 brought in. The rhesus would at once fix his eyes on the door by 

 which the anticipated feast was to come in ; and this, no matter what 

 might be the time of the day or night. The behavior was, then, not 

 influenced by the periodicity of the want, which determines regular 

 actions with many other animals, and was independent of the person 

 who pronounced the words. I might cite thousands of cases observed 

 on my premises, by hundreds of persons, that prove superabundantly 

 that monkeys fully comprehend the relations of certain words and the 

 objects corresponding to them. 



The rhesus knew, besides, the names of all the animals that lived 

 in the same room with him but in different cages — some sixty or sev- 

 enty in number. If I pronounced the name of any of them, without 

 giving any sign of voice or look, he would put his head through 

 the hole in the cage, and turn it significantly toward the animal in 

 question. 



This monkey's fear of snakes was extreme, and extended to every- 

 thing that had any resemblance to them. The same feeling is com- 

 mon to all monkeys. A very fine mandrill of my pets having a habit 

 of prying about, I found no better way of restricting his investiga- 



