305 



One day baby Jerry was on top of a cage, when he caught hold of a 

 large wooden ring suspended from a rope, and swung off. He was now 

 quite a distance from the floor, and was afraid to drop. He could not 

 swing back to the cage. Mike saw his dilemma, got on top of the cage, 

 reached out, caught the baby, folded him in his arms, and carried him 

 in safety to the floor. The keepers had always to be on their guard 

 when handling Jerry, for fear Mike would mistake their intentions and 

 attack. One evening, in Rochester, N. Y., a little girl came behind the 

 guardrail, attracted by the cunning antics of the baby, when Mike hit 

 her a blow in the face that brought the blood. 



When Jerry died, Mike, who had been sleeping with him, went into 

 the box and felt all over the body. When the body was taken in to the 

 basement, Mike insisted on following, and had to be driven back with a 

 shovel. He went to bed, but when he found out Jerry was not there, 

 he got up and came out again. He then sat about for an hour or more, 

 grieving and crying in the strangely human-like voice of his species. 

 For several days he was listless and spiritless. 



After years of experience in studying these animals and living with 

 them, I have come to the careful and deliberate conclusion that, up to 

 about four years of age, the chimpanzee babe is not only more precocious, 

 but more intelligent than a human child of the same age. But after 

 about four years the chimpanzee babe begins to fall behind and the 

 human child to go ahead. 



Joe learned to bi'ush his hair with a haii'brush, to dust his clothes 

 with a whiskbroom, to wipe his nose with a handkerchief, to eat out of 

 a cup with a spoon as well as any human child, to bore holes with a brace 

 and bit, to use a handsaw quite dexterously, to take screws out of the 

 guardrail with a screwdriver, to drive nails with the hammer and pull 

 them out again with the claw of the hammer, to play on a toy piano, 

 and to play on a mouthharp. This last is a very difficult trick to teach 

 an aniinal. You can not tell him to expel the air from his lungs and 

 you can not show him how to do it. He must pick it up himself. I 

 have known two or three elephants to learn this trick, but, aside from 

 these, Joe was the only other I ever knew to accomplish the feat. All 

 these tricks he learned with little or no teaching. He was a very close 



20—11994 



