Ornithological and Other Oddities 



first in one of the large hutches outside the 

 monkey-house, and latterly in one of the com- 

 partments of what formerly used to be the crows' 

 cages, near the Western Aviary. 



The Japanese monkeys are thick-coated, rubi- 

 cund, comfortable - looking beings, with curious 

 short tails like a docked terrier's, but the baby, 

 which was about the size of a big rat at its birth, 

 looked very different, with its pale wizened face 

 and scanty coat, much darker than that of its 

 parents. For about a week it was an infant 

 in arms, but a most difficult one to nurse. For 

 a time it would cling quietly to its mother's fur, 

 encircled by one of her arms ; but before long 

 it was certain to begin squirming about, its con- 

 tortions ending in its being upside down and 

 grasping the shaggy eyebrows of its parent with 

 its hind legs, when the old lady would grab it by 

 the leg and re-arrange it, so to speak, only to 

 have the same trouble over again. 



Soon it began to venture away from her, 

 crawling along the floor of the cage and even 

 feebly clambering up the netting. But it never 

 got far in these excursions, for it appeared to be 

 a fixed principle with mamma never to let it 

 out of sight or out of reach. If the baby got 

 round behind her, or was straying too far off — 

 especially if it was the object of attention to the 

 public or the monkeys in the adjoining compart- 



