Ornithological and Other Oddities 



more bare and dusky-coloured skin than the 

 other ; but as all the specimens I saw there were 

 immature, I was not able to determine what the 

 differences were in adults. 



I have read somewhere a statement that the 

 anthropoid apes prefer our company to that of 

 their fellow-monkeys of lower degree, and I saw 

 it proved once in Calcutta. The late Mr. W. 

 Rutledge, for many years the leading animal 

 dealer there, and a mine of natural history in- 

 formation, had a young one in his yard, and, at 

 my request, opened its cage one day to let it 

 choose its society, when, quite disregarding the 

 other monkeys, it immediately came over to him 

 and climbed into his lap. A fair-sized female we 

 had at the Calcutta Zoo, also, was a most affec- 

 tionate creature. When I paid a visit to her, 

 she would always put her arm affectionately 

 round my neck, and, while being caressed and 

 played with, would drop any food offered by 

 other visitors. Another specimen of the same 

 sex showed the less amiable side of its character 

 by long refusing the donations of one member 

 of the society, because on one occasion he had 

 first given something to other monkeys in the 

 same house. But I think it was on my very 

 first introduction to the orang that the hidden 

 humanity of the creature most impressed me. 



This was many years ago, when Mr. Abraham 



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