302 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
saw him one day he was sitting on the floor with some small 
children during lessons and was taking tremendous interest in a 
picture-book, carefully turning over the pages one by one. There 
was only one discrepancy—the book was upside down; but this 
didn’t worry the chimp! 
Her two most delightful pets, I think, were a pair of Colobus 
Monkeys which were strikingly handsome and well-behaved. 
The male was kept on a long chain for most of the day, but the 
female was allowed full liberty, though she never roamed far 
from her consort. Photographing them was very easy; Mrs. Foster 
had only to appear with a bunch of roses for them to come and 
sit in front of her in patient anticipation. Rose petals were in fact 
their favorite food, and as these grew profusely in this highland 
atmosphere, they were given large quantities daily of the blooms 
about to fall. 
The female colobus had a highly developed maternal instinct 
and would adopt not only babies of her own kind but would 
nurse such things as puppies with great affection. Unfortunately, 
the latter are strictly terrestrial animals and are not adapted for 
clinging to their mothers or foster-parents, so when the colobus 
bounded up a tree with a puppy there was a great danger that 
she would release her grip, expecting it to cling to her in true 
monkey fashion. There was a great commotion on these occa- 
sions, for as soon as it was noticed that a puppy had disappeared 
and was being nursed in a tree-top, all and sundry would dash to 
the spot and wait underneath ready to catch the baby lest it should 
fall before the colobus could be enticed to earth. 
From here I took the road back to Nakuru, then to Thomson’s 
Falls and across to Nanyuki at the base of Mount Kenya. 
Here I stayed a few days on Raymond Hook’s farm, which I 
found amusing, to say the least, as he likes variety and, in fact, 
dabbles in everything from jungle fowl and polecats to Coypu 
Rats and Karakul Sheep. 
The highland air and magnificent views of the snow-capped 
peak of Mount Kenya make this a delightful spot, but I had little 
time to admire scenery. My main interest here was birds. No 
more beautiful sight could be imagined than the male Delamere’s 
Giant Whydahs that could be seen flitting lazily over the grass- 
