ae 
“f 
the Relative Edibility of Insects. 38 
remember that after a while the monkey recognises that 
one is bringing him tasty morsels to eat, and is apt to 
become very excited, snatch at the insect, and put it into 
his mouth without having adequately seen it. If he is 
then very hungry, a hasty observer might conclude that 
the insect is very edible, whereas under other conditions 
the monkey might have ignored it. 
It is, of course, very advisable to offer the same species 
repeatedly ; but, as a matter of fact, an insect that has been 
found to be eaten readily, always will be so eaten as long 
as the monkey will eat anything. Although, as regards 
the mere fact that they are eaten, there is no difference on 
paper between a relatively distasteful insect eaten under 
stress of hunger, and an edible insect eaten by a monkey 
not very hungry, yet to an observer the difference is very 
marked. The former insect will be taken in hand, looked 
at, tasted, pulled about, and perhaps eaten piecemeal, 
with a doubtful expression; whereas the latter will be at 
once eaten with every indication of pleasure. I may say 
that the monkey’s facial expression gives a very accurate 
indication of whether or not the insect is tasty. 
Once I offered the monkey my closed hand. He came 
up to see what was inside, and I opened my hand and 
showed him a beetle which previous experiment had proved 
to be very distasteful. The monkey literally broke into a 
broad grin and walked away, evidently taking it as a joke! 
Another matter of importance is the choice of a time for 
the experiment when nothing else is likely to distract the 
monkey’s attention, and there should be no one present 
but the observer. If an insect is offered, and the monkey’s 
attention is suddenly directed to something else, he is very 
apt to put quickly into his mouth and bite up a species 
which he did not want for food. Again, sometimes when 
an insect had been offered which the monkey took and 
dropped, if one made a movement to recover it, for record, 
the monkey would often, out of sheer mischief, take it and 
crunch it up, although he had just refused to eat it! Here 
again a hasty or inexperienced observer might be misled. 
Method of Experiment Adopted. 
The monkey was kept tied up to a pole, with a shelter- 
box and perch half-way up it. The ground immediately 
around the base of the pole was cleared of vegetation, so 
