ABT. 17 EAST AFRICAKT VERTEBRATES LOVERIDGE 7 



tail of the next in the row and bit it, almost mechanically it seemed 

 to me. The whole incident might perhaps be attributed to the 

 boredom of captivity. 



In the custom's shed at Dar es Salaam two of the animals escaped; 

 the native keepers wished to give chase, but the possibility of capture 

 was so remote that I ordered them to desist. At feeding time both 

 monkeys returned and were readily secured as they sat on the cages 

 that had so lately been their prisons. 



The species was also seen at Nzingi, 6 miles west of Dodoma. 



PAPIO CYNOCEPHALUS (Linnaeus) 

 YELLOW BABOON 



Native names. — Mhuma (Chigogo); Nyani (Kiswahili). 



Six specimens, said to have been taken in the neighborhood, were 

 brought in to our base camp at Dodoma. The dietary supplied these 

 animals in no way differed from that enumerated for Johnston's 

 guenon, except that a dead bird would occasionally be given to one 

 of the older animals, by whom it would be eaten. 



None of our captives were much more than half grown^ while one 

 was so young when received in May that it must have been less than 

 a fortnight old. Its black hair gave place to the tawny coat of the 

 adult during the first three months of its captivity. When it was 

 received we already had a pair of yellow baboons wearing belts to 

 which cords were attached. The baby, which screeched without ceas- 

 ing, awoke the maternal instincts of the young female, which promptly 

 adopted it, and the spidery-limbed youngster might be seen clinging 

 around her at most hours of the day. She was very considerate in 

 allowing it to drink first and in many other ways. After awhile she 

 found the clinging weight growing burdensome and probably uncom- 

 fortably warm, and so tried to "wean" it of its attachment. If it left 

 her to eat (it was not chained up), she would, by adroitly skipping 

 this way and that, avoid it, and our nerves would be harrowed by the 

 most ear-splitting screams from the infant until she relented and 

 cuddled it to her bosom once more. 



The young male had been obtained from an Indian who kept it 

 chained to a pole in his yard. It had been the butt of boys who had 

 teased it into a very nasty temper from which I imagined it would 

 never recover. About this time it effected many escapes by biting 

 through its cord or biting the person who was leading it from its 

 sleeping place. It generally ascended to the roof or led the chase 

 away toward the village. These escapades resulted in much waste 

 of time, so a large cage was prepared for the reception of the three 

 baboons. 



In passing, I might mention a most useful arrangement in this cage, 

 which was the idea of Stephen Haweis. The cage was a large pack- 



