BRITISH CAMEROONS 339 
they would all come running to the road to get a closer look. My 
only fear was that if any of them got too near, Cholmondley 
would leap off to attack them while we were going at full speed 
and pull me over. 
By taking Cholmondley for walks and allowing him to forage 
for whatever he fancied, I learned a lot about the natural diet of 
chimps. His favorite food was a leafy creeper, which trailed 
everywhere through the grass, and of which he devoured large 
quantities in preference to his artificial diet of cultivated fruits. 
In fact, in the end I adjusted his diet to correspond largely with 
that of my forest-dwelling antelopes—Ogilby’s Duiker, Cam- 
eroons Bay Duiker, and Schultz’s Blue Duiker—which subsisted 
on leaves supplemented with a little fruit. There is no doubt that 
chimps thrive better if they consume a fair amount of fibrous 
matter, which acts as roughage. It was noticeable that Chol- 
mondley ate the stalks of plants as well as the leaves, and as an 
example of his love of food of a tough and fibrous nature he often 
climbed to the top of an oil-palm to eat its leaves, which to me 
appeared to be about as tasty as a ball of string. 
When he had the chance he fed mainly as nature intended he 
should, but at an early age he had acquired the English habit of 
drinking tea, and was so inordinately fond of this that when 
offered water he filled his mouth but always squirted it out again 
when he thought no one was looking. If his morning cup was not 
forthcoming by 6:30 a.m. he let the world know that he was 
neglected by clapping his hands and doing a war-cry. One house 
where I stayed was perched on wooden stanchions about ten feet 
above ground, and underneath this was an ideal place for Chol- 
mondley’s kennel. His long chain enabled him to climb up and 
sit on the veranda, and it was here that he demanded his tea. 
Having received a mug of the delicious brew, he preferred for 
some reason to descend to his kennel to drink it. This meant 
climbing over the veranda rail, letting himself down so that he 
was hanging to the edge of the floor, and then swinging under it 
to the top of his kennel. I am certain that no human juggler- 
acrobat could have performed this feat at such a speed without 
spilling a drop of fluid. During the act, which he performed 
