540 



The Journal of Heredity 



ing, in some membj^rs, is still the rule. 

 But nest-building only overcame a 

 temporary disability, and in the end, 

 reduction of the family solved the 

 problem. 



THE PRIMATE BAHY 



"The baby of the perfectly adapted 

 arboreal animals of the primate stock 

 is solitary; but it is a baby very differ- 

 ent from that wc have pictured in thcj 

 previous group. The arboreal baby is 

 born immature, and it is singularly de- 

 pendent upon its mother in the pre- 

 carious circumstances of life among the 

 branches. There would seem to be no 

 alternative in such a life; the baby 

 mvist either be born a perfected tree- 

 climber, or it must be a more or less 

 immature creature dependent upon 

 others for its safe conduct among the 

 branches. A^ a matter of fact, the 

 offspring of the Lemurs and Monkeys 

 are born immature and comparatively 

 helpless, save for the power of grasp 

 which is well developed in their hands. 

 Naturally they cannot immediately 

 follow their mother upon her arboreal 

 excursions; and among the Lemurs it 

 is the rule for the young to grasj:) the 

 mother, and among the Monkeys for 

 the mother to assist by grasping the 

 baby with her wherever she goes; this, 

 at the outset, is a new factor in the 

 relation of mother and offspring. We 

 may surmise that in this new relation 

 th .re is given a wider scope for the work- 

 ing of that very primitive display of in- 

 stinct summed up in the commonly 

 used phrase 'maternal care.' Maternal 

 care is, of course, perfectly well mani- 

 fested in animals situated very differ- 

 ently from those we are studying; it 

 is, in some of its manifestations, a 

 widespread and primitive animal in- 

 stinct. But the phrase 'maternal care' 

 when applied to a mother that, in 

 time of danger, defends a doj:en help- 

 less offsj^ring connotes something rather 

 different from its extension to a mother 

 that carries a solitary on"si)ring whicli 

 clings to her throughout a somewhat 

 ])rolf)nged infancy. 



"It is to be regretted that oI)si'rva- 

 tions upon the intimate details of the 

 lives of the Primates in their natural 



state are not made more frequently 

 by those having the opportunity to do 

 so. Among the Lemurs, Charles Hose 

 has noted how Tarshts carries its baby 

 in the way common among cats, by 

 picking it up with the teeth. It evi- 

 dently does not nurse its offspring. 

 The young Nycticclnts tardigradtis clings 

 tight to the mother, and the mother 

 makes but little effort to handle the 

 young. It will bite savagely if an 

 attempt is made to remove the baby 

 from its fur, but, as a rule, it resents 

 any other interference in exactly the 

 same manner. On one occasion a 

 female Nycticcbiis escaped from its 

 cage at night, and left its baby, which 

 was still suckling, to its fate. The 

 baby, which was reared on the bottle, 

 used its voice freely each evening, but 

 the mother, though living in some trees 

 quite close to its cage, never returned to 

 it. The voice of the mother was heard 

 on rare occasions, but five years passed 

 before her actual home was discovered; 

 even then she was still within a few 

 paces of the spot in which she started 

 her freedom, and in the nicanwhile the 

 young one had died. 



MONKEY MOTHERS 



"I do not know of any recorded 

 observations which show that in the 

 Lemurs the maternal instinct is very 

 much developed beyond its display in 

 carrying the helpless baby clinging to 

 the mother's fur. With ]\Ionkeys, how- 

 ev^er, the care for the young is very 

 real, and several observations have 

 besn recorded upon this point. Both 

 in their natural state and in captivity. 

 Monkeys sliow the greatest concern in 

 the well-l^eing of their oiTspring. That 

 they will defend them from attack is 

 nothing, for such a display of maternal 

 instinct is the common property of 

 most living creatures, but the Monkeys 

 go further than this in the develop- 

 ment of those numerous tendernesses 

 for their young which in all accounts 

 aro, and can only be, likened to human 

 ])arallcls. 



"With the Anthropoids, so far as 

 opp()rtuniti(>s for study in their natural 

 state have been ])ennitted, there is 

 every evidence that maternal and pa- 



