THE VERVET MONKEY OR BLUE APE 



tions of man, they are fulfilling the mission in life for 

 which they were created ; but men and monkeys 

 cannot live in proximity, for the latter are not suffi- 

 ciently evolved to understand the rights of property 

 from our point of view. No doubt the monkey tribe 

 regard us as interlopers who have dispossessed them 

 of some of their most valuable hunting-grounds, 

 inherited from remote ancestors. 



The ordinary fare of the Vervet Monkey is a 

 meagre one. It consists of wild fruits, berries, 

 tender shoots, sweet bark, flowers, bulbs, roots, the 

 seeds and gum of the mimosa tree, various species of 

 insects, birds' eggs, and the nestlings. All these 

 items of monkey menu have to be shared with a host 

 of other creatures ; and in times of drought there is 

 by no means sufficient for all. 



Apart from the damage done to crops, the Vervet 

 Monkeys do man considerable indirect harm, in eat- 

 ing the eggs and nestlings of insectivorous birds, 

 which, it is almost needless to say, are of great eco- 

 nomic value. 



In regard to insects, the balance of harm and the 

 reverse is about even, from an economic point of 

 view. Monkeys devour great numbers of caterpillars, 

 chrysalides, and vegetable-eating beetles ; but on 

 the contrary they eat insects such as spiders, which 

 are the allies of Man in his war against the insect 

 hosts which carry disease germs, or attack his 

 crops. 



Early one morning in Natal, a large troop of mon- 



9 



