1895. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 305 



captured by killing the mother, which naturally leads to the importa- 

 tion into this country, for purposes of sale, of very young specimens. 

 But the new chimpanzee, which is a male, is distinctly above this 

 average, and has, therefore, one would think, a greater chance of 

 accustoming itself to the apparently rather unfavourable environment 

 of the Marsupial house. 



The collection of apes has also been increased by the addition of 

 another specimen of the Celebesian monkey [Cynopitheais niger), one of 

 the animals peculiar to Celebes, that anomalous island — " a fragment 

 of Miocene Asia " as it has been called. The ^Marsupial house, in 

 fact, which is by no means exclusively, or even chiefly, devoted to 

 harbouring marsupials, concentrates within it ssomewhat odoriferous 

 precincts the chief objects of interest in the Zoological Society's 

 gardens at present. The most salient among the rest of these is, 

 perhaps, the three-banded armadillo {Tolypeutes tviciiuiits), which has 

 the power of rolling itself into a ball, the snout and tail being received 

 into appropriate notches, and the ears neatly folding up so as to pack 

 away comfortably. This armadillo walks upon its toes at a rapid 

 rate. The species has not been on view for some time. 



The Biography of a Chimpanzee. 



We have seen and read an interesting pamphlet, by Mr. Frank 

 Roper, upon the daily life of a captive chimpanzee exhibited at the 

 Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, near Manchester. It is curious that 

 no one who comes much into relations with chimpanzees can refrain 

 from suggesting that the particular individual of his acquaintance is 

 a species distinct from the ordinary Troglodytes niger. Mr. Roper is no 

 exception to this generalisation, which is borne out by the comments 

 respecting " Mafuca " at the Dresden Zoological Gardens and the 

 Bam Chimpanzee of Dr. Giglioli. " Consul" appears to us from the 

 photographs, published in illustration by Mr. Roper, to have been a 

 very ordinary animal, bearing no traces of likeness to the illustrious 

 " Sally," late of the Zoo, to which Mr. Roper has the temerity to 

 liken him. The animal, however, was docile, and learnt a number of 

 tricks which certainly " Sally " did not succeed in acquiring ; but 

 then we must bear in mind that the subject of Mr. Roper's biography 

 belonged to the opposite sex. To use a knife and fork would seem to 

 be a difficult feat to an ape with a short and feeble thumb ; yet we 

 are assured that the creature ate " Hke a Christian " with the usual 

 polite appliances of the dinner table, including a serviette with wliich 

 he carefully wiped his hands after food. The difficulty of reading 

 Mr. Roper's booklet is caused by the fact that we can never be sure 

 when he is speaking in English and when in journalese, the latter 

 language being, of course, not distinguished by the accuracy of the 

 former. The chimpanzee had a habit of studying Nicholson's " Zoo- 

 logy." He " turned over the leaves until he came to the drawing of a 



